The Islanders have gone to an unlikely source to fill the need on their blue line.
In what is trade between the Battle of New York rivals, the Blueshirts and Islanders agreed to a deal to send defenseman Carson Soucy to Long Island, the teams announced Monday night.
A third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is heading back to the Blueshirty for Soucy, who sat out the Rangers’ 4-3 win Monday night over the Bruins for trade-related reasons.
Soucy, acquired from the Canucks last season in exchange for a third-round pick, has collected eight points in 46 games this season while averaging 17:13 of ice time. He is eligible for unrestricted free agency after the season.
The Islanders have plenty of long-term injured reserve space with Kyle Palmieri, Pierre Engvall, Alexander Romanov and, likely, Semyon Varlamov out for the season, so Soucy’s $3.25 million cap hit is of little consequence.
With the Islanders carrying 23 men on their roster, they will need to move a player in order to fit Soucy. That could either mean adding Ryan Pulock to injured reserve or sending someone to AHL Bridgeport.
For the Islanders, the main question is whether Soucy, a left-handed defenseman, is being seen solely as a replacement for Romanov — whose role the Isles have unsuccessfully tried to fill with a series of call-ups since the Russian got hurt in mid-November — or if Ryan Pulock’s recent upper-body injury increased the urgency to add to their blue line.
The Rangers are trading defenseman Carson Soucy to the Islanders. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Pulock, who has been anchored to the top pair for most of the season, sustained the issue late in Wednesday’s loss to the Kraken before missing Saturday’s 5-0 defeat to the Sabres. He didn’t travel with the Islanders to Philadelphia for a crucial 4-0 win against the Flyers on Monday night, though the team has continued to call him day to day.
In his absence, Scott Mayfield has played on Matthew Schaefer’s right side, but it was hard to see how the Islanders could sustain being without one-third of their Opening Night blue line for long.
Soucy figures to slot into the spot currently occupied by Adam Boqvist, on the left side of the third pair opposite Isaiah George. Boqvist, who has just one point in 19 games this season, has struggled to make a consistent impact and has been benched in favor of call-ups for much of the year.
Taking George out of the lineup and shifting Boqvist to the right side is also an option, but given how Boqvist has struggled on his off side — and that George hasn’t yet gotten an extended look, with Saturday his first game with the Isles this season after being called up — that seems unlikely.
At a minimum, Soucy figures to add some defensive stability to the third pair, which has not had much of it since Romanov went down.
For the Rangers, this looks like the first move of many after general manager Chris Drury announced in a letter to fans that his team would retool. Drury, who has not taken questions from reporters since the announcement, has already told Artemi Panarin he won’t get a contract extension, and names like Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière have swirled in trade rumors.
Drury’s willingness to deal is highlighted by making a move with the Islanders, of all teams. It marks the first trade between the rivals since 2010, when the Blueshirts acquired 19-year-old defenseman Jyri Niemi from the Islanders in exchange for a sixth-round pick. The last one prior to that happened in 1972.
For now, though, everything has started with Soucy, as the Islanders, who enter play Monday in third place in the Metropolitan Division, add depth ahead of a push to finish above the playoff cutline.
