Scott Mayfield injury decision gives Islanders more trade freedom
Scott Mayfield — and his $3.5 million cap hit — is going on long-term injured reserve.
General manager Lou Lamoriello told reporters Tuesday morning before the Islanders beat the Blues, 4-2, that Mayfield, who got hurt for the third time this season on Feb. 24 against Tampa Bay, is expected to miss at least another four to six weeks before a decision is made regarding surgery on a lower-body injury.
Mayfield suffered an ankle injury while blocking a shot on opening night, which he recently told The Post took until the All-Star break to fully heal.
His game has suffered in turn, as Mayfield has appeared a step off the pace and accounted for 35 penalty minutes.
“You hate to lose a guy like him,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I guess you always have to be ready for a situation like this. In my career as a player or as a coach, you always get hit by an injury at some point and this is where the depth has a chance to take over.
“And that’s exactly what guys like [Mike] Reilly and [Sebastian] Aho have been doing right now. They’re playing good hockey for us. So it’s hard to lose a good player like Scotty: a team guy, guy that works hard, plays well on PK and on and on. But it’s part of the game.”
Aho, who has filled in for Mayfield the last four games, will likely continue to do so for the time being.
Robert Bortuzzo — who Lamoriello said could be activated from LTIR in about a week after suffering a high-ankle sprain two months ago — may eventually fill that role.
Hudson Fasching was also activated ahead of Tuesday’s game but did not play.
The flurry of moves has ramifications on two separate tracks, the first being the obvious impact of Mayfield being out on the defense corps and the second being the Islanders’ plans ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.
“Since early in the season there hasn’t been a lot of games where that same lineup’s been on the back end,” Ryan Pulock told reporters. “That’s all right. That’s why you have the other guys, that’s why you have guys that can step up and fill that role. Obviously Scotty is a big presence here, has been for a long time. All the things he does on the PK, in different areas of the game, it’s hard to copy that.”
The timeline Lamoriello gave for Mayfield’s potential return coincides with the end of the regular season, which is about six weeks from now. That means that the Islanders, whose cap situation previously prevented them from making a trade without matching salaries, have a bit of a cushion.
Subtracting Bortuzzo’s cap hit from the current LTIR pool gives the Islanders $1.53 million of space to work with, per CapFriendly’s figures.
That’s not much, but it is a lot more flexibility than they had before.
Adding a depth piece, either on defense or in the forward group, now feels a lot more feasible, especially if Oliver Wahlstrom — whose inability to stick in the lineup this season continued after Roy gave him a shot — goes the other way.
Whether the priority is a forward or another defenseman will likely depend on both the dynamics of the market — Lamoriello can’t conjure up availability — and whether the Isles are comfortable rolling with either Aho continuing to play his off side or Bortuzzo playing key minutes down the stretch.
Lamoriello also confirmed what’s been everyone’s assumption for a while: the Islanders have no interest in selling, especially after three straight wins heading into Tuesday put them right back in the playoff mix.
“As far as adding, if you can, you do,” he said. “Are we thinking about subtracting? Absolutely not.”
