Three summers ago, the Islanders offered Artemi Panarin more money than the rival Rangers, but lost out on the star winger anyway.

At the time, at least, there was some consolation in the fact that a new arena would be opening soon, and with it, the disadvantage of pitching free agents on Nassau Coliseum would be gone.

Now, however, the Islanders have that new arena, all $1.1 billion worth. Again, however, they have lost out on the biggest name of the summer. And this time, it wasn’t even to the Rangers.

Johnny Gaudreau, a native of Salem, N.J., signed with the Blue Jackets on Wednesday afternoon for seven years and roughly $9.8 million average annual value, per SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman, spurning the Islanders, Devils and Flyers to play in — of all places — Columbus, Ohio.

Gaudreau, who scored 115 points last season for the Flames, ranking second in the league, hands the Blue Jackets a superstar winger to build around — and one the Islanders would have liked to place alongside Mathew Barzal.

For the Blue Jackets, the signing is nothing short of a coup. Though there is now the matter of building the roster around Gaudreau to compete in the playoffs, he is walking into a young core as the market’s biggest star since Panarin. And, though most of the rumors surrounding Gaudreau centered around a potential homecoming, Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen convinced him to sign in a small market that requires an airplane trip to reach south Jersey.

But for the Islanders — a team that needs a scoring winger to maximize the potential of Barzal (who is entering the final year of his contract), Gaudreau would have been the perfect answer to their issues. Though the salary-cap ramifications of signing him would have been complex, and likely resulted in jettisoning multiple players, Gaudreau would have undoubtedly gotten the Islanders far closer to their first Stanley Cup title since 1983 than any other available player.

Instead, with numerous other options on the wing having gone off the board, general manager Lou Lamoriello will be left to ponder what’s next. Ondrej Palat, a key piece of Tampa Bay’s two Cup victories, who figures to be a salary cap casualty there, looks like the next-best option at the position. But the 31-year-old, who scored 49 points last season, does not engender the same kind of excitement as Gaudreau.

It’s also worth wondering whether Lamoriello will decide to explore a trade that can add more punch to the Islanders up front. That is how he addressed the team’s blue line at the draft, when he dealt the 13th pick for Alexander Romanov and a fourth-round pick. Reports from last week indicated a deal was close between the Islanders and Canucks for J.T. Miller before falling apart on the draft floor. Patrik Laine, a restricted free agent with the Blue Jackets, figures to be available now that Gaudreau has signed.

Then there is the third possibility: The Islanders could simply decide to stand pat with what they have, just as they did at the trade deadline in March.

It is abundantly clear from Lamoriello’s comments that he believes the team he has is good enough to contend, despite its 37-35-10 mark last season. Maybe fans will get to see if he’s right.

Changing the head coach to Lane Lambert and adding Romanov constitute two serious differences from the 2021-22 roster, and certainly this past season was filled with external factors that derailed the Islanders as much as their actual play.

But a whole lot of teams have gotten better in the last week, particularly in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa added Alex DeBrincat, Claude Giroux and Cam Talbot. Detroit added Andrew Copp, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, Ben Chiarot and Olli Maatta. And now, Columbus has Gaudreau.

The Islanders?

Wednesday came and went without a single addition. And losing on Gaudreau is a blow on par with losing on Panarin in 2019.

Lamoriello may like what he has. But if it is what he takes into next season, there is a whole lot riding on him being right.