Just about everyone’s initial instinct when the Islanders completed a pick swap a couple weeks ago that netted them an extra second-round pick was to wonder whether they were stocking up for a potential trade.

That probably is not misguided given the way the Islanders have treated draft picks under Lou Lamoriello.

The last first-round pick they made was all the way back in 2019; since then, they’ve traded their pick each year in deals that brought back Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri, Alexander Romanov and Bo Horvat, respectively.

After the Islanders came into this year without a third-round pick, the deal in which they sent picks No. 18 and No. 50 to Chicago in exchange for picks No. 20, No. 54 and No. 61 essentially replenished that void by moving down just two slots in the first round and four in the second round. That’s a nifty piece of business from Lamoriello, no matter the intention.