The playoff aspirations of the New York Islanders are fading quickly, if they haven't already been extinguished. The Islanders sit at the absolute nadir of the Metropolitan Division standings at this point, and their odds of actually making the postseason are one-fifth of one percentage point according to sportsclubstats.com...

Unsurprisingly the Islanders are expected to be whole hog sellers at the NHL trade deadline in early March. In fact, they reportedly may be active on the trade market even before the deadline.

While much of the current trade speculation on Long Island surrounds the fate of superstar sniper Thomas Vanek, Islanders shutdown defenseman Andrew MacDonald is "definitely in play" according to a report on Tuesday evening from TSN broadcaster Bob McKenzie.

"Here's a guy who is going into free-agency this summer and he's making $575,000 this season," McKenzie said during an "Insider Trading" segment on Tuesday, "There's a lot of interest in this player."

MacDonald is leading all Islanders players in ice-time logged this season. While MacDonald's effectiveness has atrophied significantly over the past couple of seasons, he's still an experienced big minutes blue-liner on a bargain basement deal. The reasonable cap-hit makes MacDonald a particularly attractive asset in the NHL's current "cap crunch" environment.

"The Islanders could do a deal with him," said McKenzie while assessing the situation. "But they have lots of young defenseman coming, and lots of teams are calling..."