NHL teams
Emily Kaplan, ESPN 4y

Islanders acquire Jean-Gabriel Pageau from Senators, sign him to 6-year deal

NHL, Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, New York Islanders

The New York Islanders acquired forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau from the Ottawa Senators on Monday and then reached an agreement with him on a six-year, $30 million contract extension.

Ottawa gets a 2020 conditional first-round pick, a 2020 second-round pick and a conditional 2022 third-round pick. The first-round pick is top-three protected, and if the Islanders win the Stanley Cup this spring, they will send the Senators the 2022 third-round pick.

Pageau was set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, but the high price New York paid will not be for a rental.

There were rumors throughout the day that Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello was also working on a blockbuster deal to land Wild forward Zach Parise. The two had been together with the Devils years ago. But New York and Minnesota could not complete the trade that would have likely also included forward Andrew Ladd going to the Wild to offset Parise's hefty contract.

The Senators weren't done after dealing Pageau Monday, also sending Vladislav Namestnikov to the Colorado Avalanche for a fourth-round draft pick in 2021.

Pageau, 27, has scored a career-high 24 goals this season -- five more than his previous career high. The Islanders rank 22nd in the NHL in team offense, averaging 2.84 goals per game. Pageau ranks 10th in the NHL in shooting percentage this season, at 17.8 percent.

"Just to see how competitive the team is already, and I know some of the players already on the team, I know the coaches and I've heard a lot of good things. I've heard only good things about the Islanders," Pageau said, according to NHL.com. "To have the chance to be joining the team, it's just such an honor for me. I couldn't be more excited just to go on a team that's going to be competing every year for a playoff or for a championship. I couldn't be more excited as a player. That's what we play for, that's what drives us. That's why I'm excited to go and play for them."

He said Monday that the leadup to the deadline was tough.

"I was puking last night," he said to TSN. "It was just something I had never been through so I didn't know what to expect. It was harder than I expected. ... It was stressful, and I'm glad it's over, so I can focus on the goal, which is winning."

Namestnikov, 27, has 13 goals and 12 assists in 56 games this season. He started 2019-20 with two games for the New York Rangers before they traded him to the Senators.

For his career, Namestnikov has 79 goals and 104 assists in 416 games. His best season came in 2017-18, when he had 48 points in a campaign where he was traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Senators at the deadline.

Ottawa sits in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and is almost assured of missing the playoffs for the third straight year. The Senators have already traded defenseman Dylan DeMelo this month.

The Avalanche have been dealing with several injuries, including to forwards Mikko Rantanen, Nazem Kadri and Matt Calvert. Namestnikov will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and is carrying a $4 million cap hit in 2019-20.

^ Back to Top ^