Islanders’ Messy Move?

Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the New Jersey Nets and minority partner in the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, recently said at a press conference there may be a new team joining the building.

That team could well be the New York Islanders.

The National Hockey League team has a lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., through 2015 but is expected to play an exhibition game at the new arena. However, a state investigation could make that visit permanent.

The investigation has located asbestos and, if it is not cleaned up by hockey season this fall, the team may have to find a new home, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The contract with the NHL requires the team to play on Long Island, and Brooklyn happens to be on its western tip.

The Islanders have been angling for a new arena but a switch to Barclays Center could quiet that concern.