The Islanders kept their captain. That’s a simple sentence to describe Anders Lee re-signing for seven years at $7 million per season, but the path to that contract was awfully complex.



Lee looked like he was headed elsewhere in the morning hours on Monday. After publicly declaring his desire to stay and after a dozen or so meetings between Neil Sheehy, his agent, and Lou Lamoriello throughout this season, the Isles sure looked like they were going in another direction as noon approached — specifically the direction of Artemi Panarin, at whom the Isles threw seven years and $12.5 million per season.



But just after noon, the Islanders had to engage Plan B. Panarin took about a million less per year to go to the Rangers, leaving Lamoriello needing a top-six forward badly. Lee, meanwhile, appeared to have his pick of destinations when the day began — the Canadiens, Avalanche, Wild and Hawks all had varying degrees of cap space and desire to add a big...