The Islanders made their own mess with Kyle Palmieri

It was a little difficult to understand at the time, precisely because it was no secret the Islanders might be looking for a general manager this summer.

So when Lou Lamoriello came out after the trade deadline and explained his rationale for hanging onto Kyle Palmieri, whose deal would expire at the end of the season — “We’d like to keep Kyle” — no one could ask the obvious question because it wasn’t really Lamoriello’s to answer: What if a different general manager feels differently?

Of course, we still don’t know how the next Islanders decision-maker will approach Palmieri’s situation because we don’t know who the next decision-maker will be.

What we do know about the situation is as follows: