Brock Nelson has a lot of reasons to feel sentimental right about now.
He played his 900th game as an Islander at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, becoming just the fifth player in franchise history to do so.
If he makes it as far as Saturday in an Islanders uniform, he’ll pass Bobby Nystrom to be fourth on the all-time list.
And then there is the question of whether he will make it to Saturday at all.
Nelson’s name is one of the most hotly discussed in the rumor mill as the league barrels toward Friday’s trade deadline.
By all accounts, GM Lou Lamoriello has not yet decided whether to be a seller, but with Nelson unsigned for next season, each day could be his last on the Island.
“Crazy to think back to early days and now get to this point. It’s been a lot of fun,” Nelson said before facing the Rangers. “A lot of great guys, great memories playing, growing. A lot of different things. Even outside the game, how fast time flies is crazy.”
Nelson has navigated these waters before, hearing his name out there at the trade deadline when he went into it unsigned in both 2018 and 2019. There was some noise around it last year, too.
This, however, feels different. The Islanders are out of a playoff spot. The core is on its last legs. The Islanders, seemingly, want to extend Nelson, but he is still refusing to tip his hand on what he wants, well aware that to do so would be to give up leverage in one direction or another.
A few weeks ago in Montreal, he didn’t give a direct answer to the question of what he wants. Does he know the answer, even if he won’t say?
“It all depends,” Nelson said. “I think I said there, too, everyone wants just an easy answer. Doesn’t always work out that way.
“I’ve loved playing here — I love playing here. I’m still playing here. Until somebody tells me differently, I’m just worried about playing and making a difference in the games. And I know that I feel great and have a lot of years left. I’d say it’s easy to say ‘All right, you want to get this done’ or vice versa the other way. There’s another side to it, too, that doesn’t always work out what people want or need or different things. There’s a lot of things that go into it.”
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That past tense slip of the tongue was as close as Nelson got Monday to offering anything to read into on his preferences.
He did say that, whether it’s with the Islanders or elsewhere, he’s just fine not having an extension done by Friday, if that’s how it goes. All possibilities are wide open here.
“It may not work out that way,” Nelson said. “Maybe there’s a number of different situations that can play out in contracts. Could be one that is left not done. You don’t have to have one by Friday. We’ll see how everything plays out.”
For the Islanders — a franchise that watched John Tavares walk out the door after hanging onto him in similar circumstances — it would be extremely hard to justify keeping Nelson if there’s no extension signed.
In what looks like a seller’s market, he might be the biggest chip available at the deadline, giving the Islanders a real opportunity to net a package that can help restock a relatively bare cupboard of assets.
Prior to Monday’s game, the Isles were five points out of a playoff spot, close enough to hang onto hope but far enough out that everyone outside the organization can recognize it as the longest of long shots.
Lou Lamoriello’s oft-repeated mantra — “If you have time, use it” — is at play here. Monday and Tuesday are the last two games the Islanders have before a trio of days off that will take them past the deadline. If the GM wants to give his team every chance possible to prove itself, he’ll wait until Wednesday to make a final decision on where to go.
Everyone, though, knows that Game 902 for Nelson could come in different colors.
“Long Island’s a special place,” Nelson said. “A historic franchise, a lot of history, a lot of greats that have played here, represented the blue and orange, that are still involved and around. To hit that [900], you’re never really thinking about it. It comes up fast. It’s pretty crazy.”
