Rookie GM Mathieu Darche attempted blockbuster trade at the draft.

It seems the new general manager of the New York Islanders is rather fearless when it comes to potentially making franchise-altering trade deals in the National Hockey League.

Although Mathieu Darche never managed to pull off the trade, NHL insider Frank Seravalli recently revealed that the rookie Islanders GM tried to take a massive swing on a daft-day trade, one that would have occurred only days after he officially took over the job.

"I do think that at varying points there's been some conversations around [Ilya] Sorokin," revealed Frank Seravalli on the Kevin Karius show. "I thought, and sources indicated, that there may have been some kind of draft day deal that involved Utah and the #4 pick. As part of the [James] Hagens deal that the Islanders were trying to work."

Of course that deal never came to pass and as we now know the Islanders were never able to get their hands on Hagens who eventually went 7th overall in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft after being selected by the Boston Bruins.

It does however speak to just how badly the Islanders were trying to find a way to get Hagens onto their roster, so much so that they even seriously considered dealing away their number one goaltender. It is unclear why the deal never materialized but it may have something to do with the fact that Sorokin is only entering the 2nd year of an 8 year contract that carries an average annual value and cap hit of $8.25 million per season.

That being said Sorokin continues to be a workhorse for the Islanders having appeared in 61 regular season games this past season, recording a 2.68 goals against average and a .907 save percentage on an Islanders team that failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Should the Utah Mammoth have made the deal? Or did they make the right choice by keeping the #4 pick and selecting Caleb Desnoyers instead? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.