Over the last two NHL seasons, Brock Nelson has begun to deliver on the promise that made the New York Islanders select him in the first-round of the 2010 NHL Draft. Nelson followed a breakout 2013-14 campaign in which he potted 14 goals and added another 12 assists in 72 regular season contests with a 2014-15 season that saw him make the fulltime move to the big club and contribute 20 goals and 22 assists in 82 regular season games and add a couple more markers during the Isles' short-lived postseason run.
Moving forward, Nelson looks to be an important piece of the Islanders young core and big part of the franchise's future. Its surprising then, that Nelson, a restricted free agent, still does not have a contract on the eve of New York's training camp and at the doorstep of the 2015-16 NHL season. It seems that while that may be the case, it's not for a lack of trying on Islanders GM Garth Snow's part. ESPN's Pierre LeBrun reported late Tuesday that Snow and Co. had, at one point last year, made a seven-year extension offer to Nelson and his reps. Arthur Staple of Newsday confirmed LeBrun's report on Wednesday.
Still, despite talk the Isles have made, presumably highly lucrative, contract extension offers to Nelson in the recent past, Nelson's agent, Ron Salcer indicated to Staple that as if this week they had not heard from the Islanders in six weeks.
"We haven't heard from them in six weeks," Salcer said, via Staple. "Garth [Snow, the Islanders' general manager] and I talked six weeks ago after they made an offer, which was nowhere near commensurate with what players like Brock are making. Garth said he'd get back to me and that was it. No negotiations whatsoever."
Snow controls the situation as Salcer and Nelson do not have arbitration rights, but the pair still rejected the Islanders' qualifying offer. They've also refused the two-year bridge contract Snow offered as a consolation of sorts.
Considering Islanders owner Charles Wang's ridiculous rule about players unsigned by the outset of training camp sitting out the entirety of the year, it seems there is something of a deadline here for Salcer and Snow.
But with the other contracts sure to trouble Snow in the coming months - Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, Michael Grabner - Nelson and Salcer may simply be stuck in a situation where a good player is falling by the wayside as better, more integral and well-established players take precedent.
