Welcome to the first edition of the Drive4Five mailbag! In this series, we will be answering questions that are asked to us on our Instagram, @drive4five, through the question and answer feature on Instagram stories, both about the Islanders and hockey in general. This will be a collaborative effort by all the writers on the website as each week you will see different people answering the questions! If you want to ask a question to potentially be featured in next week’s mailbag, make sure to check our Instagram for the next time we post the question and answer box on our story!

From @joea66: “What’s gonna happen with our goalie situation?”

“With Ilya Sorokin officially signing with the New York Islanders, the expectation is he’ll be a plug and play guy coming out of the KHL. As a result, one goaltender will likely be on the way out, and that goalie will likely be Thomas Greiss as a pending UFA. Greiss has made a positive impact on the organization over the past five years, but he is 35 years old and has struggled at times this season. As a result, considering his age and the Islanders’ upcoming cap crunch, he is likely to be the odd one out that will leave in order for Sorokin to come to America.”
-Matt

From @barzalandersfan__13: “Still think Wahlstrom will be that top-line sniper?”

“In the past 2 years after being drafted, Oliver Wahlstrom has struggled with consistency. After an unsuccessful year at Boston College, he came to the Sound Tigers and has put up 25 points in 50 games, across two seasons. Wahlstrom had a brief stint with the Islanders at the beginning of the 2019-20 season, where he played well but didn’t score any points in nine games. Oliver is a big strong forward with a booming shot, and if he can begin to put points up more consistently with the right coaching, he can definitely become a top-line sniper for the Islanders for many years to come.”
-Brendan

From @lukaselestrin: “Do you think any teams would tank the play-in rounds for a chance at the first overall pick?”

“As nice as having Alexis Lafrenière to build your team around would be, no self-respecting hockey player or organization would purposely lose a game for a 12.5% shot at a draft pick. The teams that would need him the most (Montréal, Chicago, Arizona, and Minnesota) all have relatively difficult matchups to begin with. We can hope that the best team comes away winning because seeing Lafrenière lined up with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, or the promising young Canucks team would be extremely scary for any other team to face off against. The fact that the eight losing teams each have an equal 12.5% chance of winning that top spot is a great stop-gap to prevent tanking in an already difficult remainder of the season to set up.”
-Jake
Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, and make sure to keep an eye out on the Instagram story for the next time to submit questions, and check back next week for the second installment of the Drive4Five Mailbag!

SEF