Mathieu Darche picked up right where Lou Lamoriello left off.
The new Islanders general manager announced his first two moves Friday, completing a pair of contract negotiations that Lamoriello had brought to the finish line before his ouster a month ago by signing Kyle Palmieri to a two-year extension and inking a one-year extension with Adam Boqvist.
Palmieri’s deal has a $4.75 million average annual value and Boqvist’s comes in at $850,000, per industry sources.
According to PuckPedia, Palmieri also has a full no-trade clause next season that gets whittled down to a 16-team no-trade clause in 2026-27.
The speed at which the deals were announced isn’t much of a surprise.
At his introductory press conference Thursday, Darche said he’d already spoken with “most of the agents” representing the club’s pending free agents — and it only made sense that those two would be at the top of the list given negotiations were already well underway when Lamoriello was let go.
Palmieri’s future was up in the air at the March trade deadline, but Lamoriello hung onto him with the understanding that the two sides could move forward on an extension.
The 34-year-old Palmieri, who was born in Smithtown, made no secret of his desire to stay on Long Island.
Palmieri has become one of the leaders for the Islanders since being acquired in 20221, and his productivity has bounced back after a couple injury-riddled seasons.
He’s the only Islander to play 82 games each of the last two years, and the 34-year-old finished last season with 24 goals and 24 assists — third on the team in goalscoring.
“You can’t just replace someone like Kyle out of thin air sometimes,” captain Anders Lee said after Darche met the media Thursday.
“I know what he means to this team. I know what he means to me as a friend, as a teammate. Kyle’s a great player and he’s played in this league for a long time. He knows what it takes to win, how to play the game. He can get dirty if he needs to and he puts the puck in the net. Those are tough to replace.”
As for Boqvist, the Swedish defenseman was acquired off waivers in January and carved out a place as an offensive defenseman, with Patrick Roy taking a liking to his power play acumen and willingness to play forward in a pinch.
There’s a lot still up in the air with the Islanders’ defense corps, but it’s likely that Boqvist will start next season in a similar place as he ended last season: as the club’s sixth or seventh defenseman and someone who Roy can turn to for an offensive boost.
