NHL draft makes clear Lou Lamoriello’s promised Islanders changes won’t come easy

LAS VEGAS — There were fireworks before 9 a.m. here in the desert with Mikhail Sergachev getting dealt to Utah, and there could be more in the coming days, with names such as Nikolaj Ehlers and Rutger McGroarty still with situations yet to be resolved, with names such as Jake Guentzel and Steven Stamkos possibly hitting free agency Monday.

The Islanders, however, stayed at the low-limits table for the time being.

After standing pat on day two of the draft and making all five of their picks as scheduled, the only thing clear about the Islanders’ situation is that delivering the sort of change that Lou Lamoriello promised on breakup day is not going to be so easy.

“Depends on what’s available and what you can do,” Lamoriello said on the floor of The Sphere after the draft wrapped up. “I don’t go back on anything I said. Have every intent to try and change. But it’s a cliché of not doing it for the sake of it, and I hate to even say that. But it might take a little time. It’s not something that we’re gonna rush into.

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“If there’s a change that’s gonna help us, we’re gonna do it. We’re committed to winning. That’s the bottom line.”

Read between the lines, and it sounds like Lamoriello is saying the Islanders don’t want to dump assets just to make cap-clearing moves, at least unless they know for certain it’ll pay off on the other end.

The Islanders are not in the business of giving up players for less than they value, even in the case of Oliver Wahlstrom, who Lamoriello said the team plans to qualify as a restricted free agent so they will not lose him for nothing.

“If we can get him an opportunity because it hasn’t worked out [we will], but we’re not just going to give him away,” Lamoriello said. “He’s still a hockey player.”

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Look at their cap sheet, with a projected $5.65 million of space going into free agency that does not include qualifying offers that must be extended by 5 p.m. Monday — Lamoriello declined to confirm that all four of the organization’s restricted free agents will be qualified — and it’s clear that the Islanders won’t have the space to be major players in free agency as things stand right now.

The only way for the Islanders to create change beyond the confines of their bottom six or bottom defense pair is via trade — either to bring in a player or to open up cap space.

This summer still appears on course to be more eventful than the past two, but at a draft that offered chances for some explosive moves, the Islanders veered toward conservatism.

There are a lot of people in this town who could tell you firsthand that pushing all your chips in isn’t always the best move, and rebuilding their prospect pool could pay off for the Islanders, particularly if the likes of Cole Eiserman, Jesse Pulkkinen and Kamil Bednarik — the team’s first-round pick and their two second-round picks, respectively — work out.

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Lamoriello was happy with the draft haul that included a pair of late-round goalies and defenseman Xavier Veilleux as the team’s final sixth-round pick, noting happily that Eiserman and Bednarik will be in the charge of Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo this fall.

It was significant, though, that Lamoriello described extending existing contracts — Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri, Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov are eligible July 1 — as “not the focus right now.”

“That’s not in any disrespect to them or anything,” he said. “I think the focus right now is getting this team in the best situation we can get it to win.”

Change will be a process.

There is still a chance to kick it into gear over the next few days.

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