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The New York Islanders traded Brock Nelson to the Colorado Avalanche late Thursday night for a first-round pick in either 2026 or 2027, a conditional 2028 third-round pick and center Calum Ritchie, the Avs’ first-round pick in 2023 and top prospect.
The Islanders retained 50 percent of Nelson’s $6 million cap hit and also sent AHL forward William Dufour in the deal. Defenseman Oliver Kylington also came in the deal from Colorado but was immediately flipped to the Anaheim Ducks for future considerations.
Nelson, who sits fourth in Islanders history with 901 games played and fifth with 295 goals, declined an extension from the Isles on Thursday, spurring the move. The 33-year-old pending unrestricted free agent has 20 goals and 23 assists this season and should fit in well with Colorado’s highly skilled top-six forward group, where he can play center or wing.
Nelson got teary-eyed when being interviewed on the bench after Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Jets at UBS Arena when asked what the Island meant to him. He may not have known for sure then, but it was his last game this season in an Islander uniform.
An emotional first star Brock Nelson discusses his @nyislanders big win over the league leading Jets and what it’s meant to wear an Islander jersey his entire career. #Isles | @Shannon_Hogan pic.twitter.com/hr3DyFhYgE
— Isles on MSGSN (@IslesMSGN) March 5, 2025
The Avalanche could have interest in extending Nelson even though he spurned the Isles’ advances. Nelson will be a hot commodity if he gets to free agency on July 1, just as he was ahead of Friday’s deadline once Lamoriello realized Nelson was not going to stay.
The Islanders will certainly pitch Nelson on a return if he heads to free agency, but the Minnesota Wild, close to Nelson’s hometown of Warroad, Minn., and free of their buyout commitments this summer, will be in there bidding as well. It’s a rare situation when a team moves on from a player at the deadline and is able to successfully bring him back in free agency.
For now, the Avs get to make a Stanley Cup run with Nelson and try to sell him on staying in Denver.
The Islanders now have a pair of first-rounders in 2026 or 2027, with the 2026 pick lottery-protected — if the Avs miss the playoffs next season, the pick flips to 2027. And Ritchie instantly becomes one of the top prospects in a very thin pool — a center who is putting up big numbers at Oshawa in the OHL for a second straight post-draft year. Ritchie has 14 goals and 67 points in 41 games after getting a seven-game taste of the NHL to start this season. His lone goal came against the Islanders.
Kyle Palmieri is also a pending UFA for the Islanders, but there was no news on him late Thursday. A league source said no decision had been made on whether to move Palmieri, who like Nelson scored his 20th goal on Tuesday.
But moving Nelson was ultimately a no-brainer for Lamoriello, who hates selling at the deadline almost as much as he hates facial hair. The Isles general manager held out to the last 20 hours before the deadline in the hope that Nelson could be convinced to stay. Now, even though it wasn’t Lamoriello’s first choice, the remaking of an Islanders team that’s grown stale has finally begun.
Even if no other players move, taking one of the core players from the past decade off the squad is a radical change. The Islanders sit four points out of the last wild-card spot in the East, in danger of missing the playoffs for the second time in four years. They won’t have Mat Barzal back until the end of the regular season from a broken kneecap, if he can return at all this year, so the writing was on the wall for this season even before the Nelson trade.
With a very good return in this deal, the Islanders can begin to chart a new path heading into next season.
(Photo: Rich Graessle / Getty Images)