Veteran winger Jonathan Drouin has agreed to a two-year deal with the New York Islanders worth $4 million annually.
Drouin, who was the No. 3 pick of the 2013 NHL draft, had spent the past two seasons with the Colorado Avalanche, where he was reunited with former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon as he was trying to help the Avs win their second title since 2022.
The Avs signed Drouin to a one-year deal worth $825,000 that would see him score 19 goals and a career-high 56 points in 79 games for the Avs, who were eliminated in the second round by the Dallas Stars.
Having that kind of consistent secondary offense led to the Avs offering Drouin another one-year deal worth $2.5 million. Injuries limited Drouin to just 43 games but still saw him score 11 goals and score 37 points that saw them enter the postseason as one of the legitimate challengers to win the Western Conference.
Colorado would face Dallas in the first round before losing in seven games with former Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen scoring a hat trick in the series-deciding contest.
With the Avs facing questions about how they would manage the salary cap, there was a belief that Drouin's time in Denver could be coming to an end.
Getting Drouin gives the Islanders another top-nine winger in a group that features Anthony Duclair, Anders Lee, Simon Holmstrom, Kyle Palmieri, and Maxim Tsyplakov as they look to improve upon a 35-win season that saw them finish nine points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
PuckPedia projects that the Islanders, who drafted Erie Otters defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick of the NHL draft Friday, will have $7.1 million in cap space to address their needs, which include finding new deals for pending restricted free agents such as Holmstrom and Tsyplakov.