The pair of mandates handed to Mathieu Darche upon getting the job as general manager of the Islanders are almost always impossible to make work simultaneously.

Set up the Islanders for the future. And keep them competitive in the present.

Even with the first overall pick in hand, a stroke of dumb luck that changed the Islanders’ outlook almost completely, nothing about this was easy.

This was the tightrope the first-time GM was walking a week ago, and he did so with Noah Dobson’s contract negotiation hanging over him, along with the growing knowledge around the league that the Islanders wanted to trade for a second top 10 pick and draft James Hagens. In both situations, Darche held little to no leverage.