Kyle Okposo recently announced his retirement, hanging up the skates after 17 seasons. The former New York Islander ended his career on a high note and fans couldn’t have asked for a better send-off for him. Sure, it would be nice to see Okposo end his career on Long Island with the team that drafted him but to see a player spend most of his career buried on bad teams and hoist the Stanley Cup is a great way to cap off a career.
Related: Kyle Okposo Announces Retirement After a 17-Season Career
The Islanders never reunited with Okposo after he left in the 2016 offseason. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen with another player who was once on the team. Some former players are missed more than others and it would be great to see one of them return and finish out their career with the Islanders.
Robin Lehner
This week, a lot of news has surfaced about Robin Lehner, the Vegas Golden Knights, and his absence from the team as training camp begins. It’s a developing situation and the league will have more clarity in the coming weeks but it looks like Lehner will not play for the Golden Knights this season.
Lehner hasn’t played since the 2021-22 season and is well past his prime. Moreover, he’s battled injuries in recent years and it makes a return to the NHL, much less the Islanders, unlikely. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a contending team to add him but if anyone would, it would be the Islanders.
The Islanders already have a great duo they can lean on. However, if Lehner signed a team-friendly deal, he could be the third-string option and start a handful of games. It’s also possible he rediscovers himself with the organization that revitalized his career. Lehner’s best season was 2018-19, the only one he spent with the Islanders and he’ll always have a strong connection to the fanbase and the region. A reunion would be a great way for Lehner to end his career, especially if he can strengthen the goaltending position for the team.
John Tavares
There’s a mixed reaction about whether bringing John Tavares back would be a good idea. He left the Islanders in the 2018 offseason to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, his hometown team. Considering his tenure with the Maple Leafs has been for the most part a good one and the response he receives every time he touches the puck at UBS Arena, all signs point to him retiring with his current team.
The recent offseason signals otherwise. Tavares, a staple of the Maple Leafs roster for the past six seasons, could be on the way out. First came the coaching change, a hint that the Maple Leafs were planning on making some changes in the future. Then came the captaincy change, which isn’t a big deal, but it’s a sign that the team might want to move on from Tavares. In case that wasn’t enough, there’s the big picture of what’s happening around the league.
Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Jaccob Slavin, and just about every big-name 2025 free agent has signed an extension. The Maple Leafs have their hands full with Mitch Marner, who has yet to receive a long-term deal, yet Tavares also heads into the season on the final year of his contract as well. Assuming the Maple Leafs take care of the Marner deal, Tavares will be the odd one out and heading to free agency.
So, Tavares could be available in the 2025 offseason. The question is if he would return to the Islanders. The team would like to have him back but pressed against the cap, it would take a significant pay cut from one of the highest-paid players in the league. That said, he would be an upgrade, especially to the top six. It’s hard to see Tavares back in an Islanders uniform but it can’t be ruled out.
Jordan Eberle
Even at 33 years old, Jordan Eberle will garner some trade interest this season. He’s not a free agent until the 2026 offseason and is still a great scorer on the wing, scoring 58 goals in the last three seasons. If the Seattle Kraken are noncompetitive again, they will look to move him to bring in young talent.
The Islanders let Eberle go in the 2021 Expansion Draft when he was left unprotected and the Kraken selected him. It proved costly as Mathew Barzal was left without a shooter on his line and the offense as a whole took a big step back. While the Islanders would like to be a younger team instead of fielding a group that continues to decline with age, they’d also love to have Eberle back in the top six.
This is a trade and a reunion that can easily happen. The Islanders would have to give a young skater to the Kraken to make the trade work, but it would bring Eberle back and give the team a great top-six.
Other Islanders Reunions That Can Happen
Nick Leddy would be an intriguing defenseman to bring back. Like Eberle, he’s older and has lost a step as a skater. That said, he would be a viable depth option and add a puck-moving presence in the process. He would be brought in to play the third pair and round out a unit that already has two reliable pairings at the top.
Anthony Beauvillier has bounced around since the Bo Horvat trade. He went from the Vancouver Canucks, to the Chicago Blackhawks, to the Nashville Predators, to recently signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He struggled to find a role in the Islanders’ forward unit, especially at the end of his tenure with the team, making him an expendable skater. However, Beauvillier could eventually return as a depth option with the hope that he would turn around his career.
The catch with Islanders general manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello keeping the roster intact every season is that there aren’t a lot of players who can reunite with the Islanders. However, the few who can, even in the twilight of their careers, would help them out and put a bow on their careers as well.
