Islanders sign center who could help fill John Tavares void

Lou Lamoriello got his last bit of housekeeping done Monday when the Islanders president and acting general manager signed restricted free-agent center Brock Nelson to a one-year deal worth $4.25 million. The settlement avoids an arbitration hearing that was set for Aug. 3, with the Islanders having previously given the 26-year-old Nelson a qualifying offer of $3.5 million.

So that ends all of the internal negotiations that were on the slate for the Islanders in what has been a tumultuous summer. Of course, this offseason was defined by the departure of captain and franchise foundation John Tavares, who left to sign as a free agent with his hometown Maple Leafs. But that also gave Lamoriello more of an open salary-cap situation, part of which was used on Nelson who otherwise was likely going to be aggressively shopped as a trade piece.

Nelson has spent five seasons in the NHL now, picked by the Islanders in the first round (No. 30 overall) in 2010. He has never quite lived up to the hope he could be a consistent top-six forward, putting up 19 goals and 35 points while playing all 82 regular-season games last season. He has surpassed the 20-goal plateau three times in his career, with his 45 points in 2016-17 being a career-best.

The native of Warroad, Minn., played his college hockey at the University of North Dakota and should be penciled in for a big role this season under first-year head coach Barry Trotz. Behind reigning Calder Trophy winner Mathew Barzal, Nelson is next in line for big minutes down the middle.

Lamoriello has also brought in a handful of veterans to help fill the void left by Tavares, and a lot of them are of the bottom-six/penalty-killing types. That includes Leo Komarov, Valtteri Filppula, Matt Martin and Tom Kuhnhackl. If the goal was for the Islanders to become a tougher, grittier team to play against, they still will need to score goals.

Both Nelson and the Islanders hope he can help in that area.