On Wednesday, NHL Free Agency opened and the Islanders surprised me with their amount of activity. The biggest signing of the day for them was of course forward Matias Maccelli who they signed to a 1 year deal worth 2.25 million.
Maccelli, previously with Toronto, had 39 points in 71 games last season. His career high was a couple seasons ago when he had 57 points (17 goals, 40 assists) with Arizona. Maccelli is more of a playmaker then a goal scorer and will make some passes that make you say wow how did he see that? Given some of the crazy contracts thrown around on July 1, getting Maccelli on a 1 year deal seemed like a fine bit of work by Darche to me.
In addition to Maccelli, the Islanders also signed goalie Vitek Vanecek to be insurance for Semyon Varlamov and some depth players including Matthew Kessel and Mitchell Chaffee.
