Anders Lee's agent made some interesting revelations about his free agency process

BarDown Staff

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Heading into free agency, the New York Islanders were in danger of losing their captain for a second-straight summer. Anders Lee, who replaced John Tavares as the team's captain, hit the open market as a UFA on Monday.

It took some time, but both sides managed to agree to a long-term deal to keep Lee on Long Island for the foreseeable future and after the contract was completed, Lee's agent took to Twitter to share that there was no way Lee was ever leaving.

There was NEVER a moment on this FA Day where it was even a possibility that Anders Lee was going to leave @NYIslanders no matter what else happened. This type of “FAKE NEWS” fries my bananas! Anders Lee said the most important quality in a teammate is “LOYALTY” and he meant it.
— NEIL SHEEHY (@ICEHockeyAgent) July 2, 2019

Sheehy also revealed that Lee was staying in Long Island regardless of if the Islanders managed to land Artemi Panarin.

Anders Lee never left the NYIslanders. We did not “negotiate” with teams as Anders wanted to stay with the @NYIslanders. There was much interest and his $7M AAV allows Lou Lamoriello to pursue players who can help the Islanders win. Anders was staying with-or-without Panarin. https://t.co/8SPutmloDH
— NEIL SHEEHY (@ICEHockeyAgent) July 2, 2019

The "loyalty" part of the first tweet might lead your mind right to Tavares and that would be natural of it to do so.

Neil, thank you for getting it done and thanks for the transparency.
— 𝓣𝓳𝓚 (@HarryHoodlum) July 2, 2019

Loyalty to the utmost degree. Now that's a captain we can all be proud of.
— Chris Ward (@cward21187) July 2, 2019

There’s a reason he’s the captain
— Colton Hunter (@ColtonHunter17) July 2, 2019

"That's our captain!" All class by all parties involved.
— Marc Lieber (@marclieber) July 2, 2019

The Islanders shocked a lot of people last season when they made the playoffs after losing Tavares and they'll be even hungrier this season to prove it wasn't a fluke.

(H/T: /r/hockey)