PHILADELPHIA — The Capitals have become a regular-season powerhouse the way the Rangers were last year, and Denis Potvin will tell you everyone should bow down in admiration to the Panthers, but the truth is the window is wide open in the East, where nobody else is particularly daunting.

Wide open for the Islanders if general manager Garth Snow will get off his assets and make the type of dramatic go-for-it deadline deal that never has been part of his DNA. Of course, to be fair (but why start now?), Snow’s teams generally have not been in position to go for much of anything at the deadline.

And the first order of business for the GM is to get a legitimate upper-echelon wing to play with John Tavares, who, but for a few months in 2013-14 when Thomas Vanek was by No. 91’s side, never has been joined by a bona fide All-Star on his line.

There is the need to add depth — if not specifically a puck-mover — to the defense that has hung in gamely with essential right-siders Johnny Boychuk and Travis Hamonic sidelined, but obtaining a partner in crime for Tavares should be the priority.

Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome? Useful players, Okposo more than that, and the latter four with undiscovered upside, but let’s put it this way: Bobby Nystrom was/is a terrific guy and an essential piece of the Dynasty, yet you sure didn’t see him playing right wing with Bryan Trottier.

The Islanders live in their own little world, even as they’re attempting to straddle Long Island and Brooklyn — a task as tricky as the commute. The organization operates to the beat of its own drum. If outside pressure on pro sports teams is a legitimate factor that can drive decisions, there seems to be none on the Islanders, even if they have not won a playoff round since 1993.

But there is an opening here. Yes, Washington does appear mighty formidable, but though the Justin Williams and T.J. Oshie acquisitions changed the club’s composition, the significant core that has gone 3-7 in playoff series is guilty until proven innocent in the postseason.

There is an opening, and Snow and the Islanders have both the cap space and inventory of young assets to exploit it. It’s great to have Lee, Nelson, Bailey, Strome, Hamonic and Calvin de Haan, all 26 and younger, here, with the 25-year-old Tavares; great to have a pipeline that includes Josh Ho Sang, Michael Del Colle, Ryan Pulock, Anthony Beauvillier and Matthew Barzal.

But they’re not all going to be Islanders, they’re not all going to be Islanders at the same time, and it is incumbent upon Snow to identify the assets — including those here already — who would best serve the organization as trade bait in what will be a booming rental market.

What would it take to add Eric Staal to Tavares’ left side? What would it take for the Islanders to pry Dustin Byfuglien or Andrew Ladd out of Winnipeg, if not both? And is it not worth investigating whether Steven Stamkos would be available to play right wing for a few months with Tavares?

If we’re going beyond rentals, and why not, don’t the Islanders have enough to get Jonathan Drouin? And is there enough for Snow to pull off a deal with old trading buddy Peter Chiarelli, now in Edmonton, to get young Taylor Hall onto No. 91’s left wing? Wouldn’t that be something?

According to the website, stats.hockeyanalysis.com, Kyle Okposo — an impending free agent, himself — has been on with Tavares for 1,034 of No. 91’s 1,913 five-on-five minutes the past two years. Bailey (825 minutes), Lee (507), Nikolay Kulemin (423), Strome (278), Nelson (276) and even lately Mikhail Grabovski (25) have had their respective turns as the third wheel.

But Tavares, who has not been at the top of his game on a consistent basis, could use a first-rate partner, and he could use one now. So could the Islanders, who are a shrewd move or two away from putting themselves into position to climb through the East’s wide-open window.

The John Scott All-Star scenario, in which a few wise guys with access to the Internet prevailed on fans to embarrass the NHL — and for what reason beyond the fact they could in this “Hey, look at me!” smarmy subsection of social media is beyond me — devolved into further farce upon his trade to the Canadiens organization that may disqualify him from participating as Pacific Division captain as he now belongs to an Atlantic Division franchise.

Though you’ve got to say Montreal GM Marc Bergevin sure didn’t give up very much to get an All-Star winger, don’t you?

So who in the world made the decision for the NHL Network to cut away from its cut-in to the Panthers-Canucks game on Monday just as the postgame hijinks at the Florida were getting interesting?

By the way, Jaromir Jagr nailed it when the Panthers were 8-8-3 on Nov. 20 and he said: “I thought we would have a better record, for sure.” Since then, the Puddy Tats (No offense, Denis, I’m having a peanut butter sandwich) have gone 18-5-3.

Parity or parody? Through Thursday, 15 of the NHL’s 30 teams had won between 20 and 23 games, making each an honorary member of the NFC East.

If the Canadian dollar continues its descent toward 60 cents on the U.S. buck, and thus increases the likelihood of escrow climbing over 20 percent next season, is anyone going to be surprised if the NHLPA does not exercise its 5 percent salary-cap bump, and could anyone really hold it against membership?

If teams are not planning on a decline in the 2016-17 cap — or at best, a flat $71.4 million — they would be making a significant mistake.

Saw where Doug MacLean, one-time GM of the Panthers and Blue Jackets and now one of SportsNet’s go-to guys behind the mike, referenced Mike Bossy and Al Arbour when talking about Alexander Ovechkin and the efforts by past coaches to get the Great 8 to be more attentive on the defensive side of the puck.

“Can you imagine Al Arbour telling Mike Bossy he had to check?” the only Panthers coach ever to win a playoff series (three, in 1996) asked rhetorically, as if the concept was beyond the pale.

Except, well, the answer is actually yes, since Arbour frequently pulled Bossy from the ice for defensive-zone draws his first couple of years in the league before No. 22 (not amused by the tactic) became as dangerous without the puck as with it (OK, almost) and developed into one of the Islanders’ best penalty killers.

Of course, Radar never gave Bossy fewer minutes in a playoff game than, say, Billy Carroll, the way former Capitals coach Dale Hunter gave Ovechkin less time than Jay Beagle against the Rangers in 2012.

So who won the Rangers-Ducks’ Carl Hagelin-Emerson Etem trade? The Penguins, that’s who.