As they take a day between regular season home-and-home games, the Rangers and Islanders are both faced with impending questions on how they’ll proceed with their pending free agent second-line pivots, Kevin Hayes and Brock Nelson.



Trading Derek Stepan in the 2017 offseason left a hole down the middle of the Rangers’ lineup. Losing John Tavares to free agency opened up a gap on the Islanders in July. Both promoted from within, with Mika Zibanejad absorbing the first-line role for the Rangers and Mathew Barzal for the Islanders.



But now the focus shifts from their first line to their second line, with the contracts of centers that signed as restricted free agents last summer expiring as unrestricted free agents.



After Nelson’s second contract, a three year, $7.5 million deal that carried a $2.5 million cap hit expired, the Islanders extended the then 26-year-old for one year at $4.25 million. Now at age 27, he may be on his way to...