{"id":382214,"date":"2025-11-16T04:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/382214\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T04:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:19:18","slug":"longtime-islander-brock-nelson-expecting-weird-feeling-as-he-faces-former-team-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/382214\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Islander Brock Nelson expecting ‘weird’ feeling as he faces former team for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMERCE, Colo. \u2014 Even now, eight months and a new contract into his time with the Avalanche, Brock Nelson is still processing the trade that sent him from Long Island to Colorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His first game against the Islanders, the franchise for which he played over a decade before getting traded last March after declining to sign a contract extension, is \u201cpart of that process,\u201d Nelson said after the Avalanche wrapped up their practice Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt took a bit [of time], for sure. I still keep tabs on all the guys. \u2026 It\u2019s such an adjustment to have \u2014 not that I would sleepwalk through warmups \u2014 but to know the ins and outs from everything: staff and player, personnel, team, different things, to reintegrate a bit took a little bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson, whose 901 games and 295 goals with the Islanders each rank fifth in the franchise record books, was the subject of protracted trade rumors leading into last season\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n

Lou Lamoriello, then the general manager of the Islanders, was open about wanting to extend Nelson, but when the two sides failed to agree on terms, Lamoriello pivoted and dealt Nelson to the Avalanche for a package highlighted by Cal Ritchie and a 2026 first-round pick.<\/p>\n

\"ColoradoBrock Nelson moves the puck during the Avalanche\u2019s Nov. 4 game against the Lightning. AP<\/p>\n

Ritchie, the Avs\u2019 top prospect at the time, will be in the lineup for the Islanders on Sunday at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

And Nelson, for the first time in his career, will look to the opposing bench and see an Islanders logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, had a lot of good, honest conversations with Lou, and Lou was great to me throughout the whole process, through those times,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt definitely wasn\u2019t easy. You can\u2019t look back in hindsight and worry about your time and how to change things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewBrock Nelson is pictured during the Islanders\u2019 March 1 game against the Predators. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Nelson gave an open invitation to his old teammates for dinner on Saturday and a number of them \u2014 including, but not limited to, Casey Cizikas, Anders Lee, Kyle Palmieri, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Bo Horvat \u2014 took him up on it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be different playing against them,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be something. These are the guys, I\u2019m familiar with their whole routines and stuff for over a decade and they\u2019re familiar with mine. It\u2019ll be weird seeing them on the other side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer the way it\u2019s set up where it\u2019s here first before going back there [to Long Island]. I think it\u2019ll be nice. Going back there, it\u2019ll be a little bit different. I\u2019m excited for the guys to come over, hang out, shoot the s\u2013t, see each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMMERCE, Colo. \u2014 Even now, eight months and a new contract into his time with the Avalanche, Brock…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":382215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,124371,2995,405,403,1301,5226,5225,293,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-382214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brock-nelson","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115557457313392406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}