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Brock Nelson Agrees to One-Year Deal With Islanders, Avoiding Arbitration
Ahead of an arbitration hearing, the New York Islanders and forward Brock Nelson agreed to a one-year deal on Monday, worth a reported $4.25 million.
The 26-year-old racked up 19 goals and 35 points in 2017-18, the final season of a three-year, $7.5 million deal. He ranked eighth in scoring on the Islanders as well as finished sixth among team forward in TOI on the man advantage. In five NHL seasons, all with the Isles, he's posted 99 goals and 188 points in 398 games.
He'll also be playing for a new contract again in 2018-19 with another summer as a restricted free agent looming.
Nelson has been a durable player for NYI, missing just two games over the past four seasons, and will likely see some increased responsibilites with John Tavares no longer in the Isles’ plans.
• Islanders' Nelson is adding to his family's decorated hockey lineage
"You can go on and on about how tough it is [without Tavares], but I think the future's still bright," Nelson said earlier this offseason. "We have one of the best players in the league with [Mat] Barzal. He came in right away and won the Calder so that's a guy right away you look at [who] could even take a bigger step forward and lead us even more than he did last year, so we can lean on guys like that."
This summer, Nelson has shown some offensive spark while playing in Da Beauty League, racking up five goals and eight points through two games in the high-scoring 4-on-4 league in Minnesota, where he was a finalist for the title of Mr. Hockey as a high schooler in 2010.
The Islanders have had a busy offseason, signing forwards Valtteri Filppula and Leo Komarov while adding goalie Robin Lehner and re-signing defensemen Thomas Hickey and Ryan Pulock.