Were it not for Newsday’s pay wall, a named journalist from the L.I. daily would be directly attributed in this space as the source for the following report from MLB.com’s Dan Manella :

Mets chief operating office Jeff Wilpon has had discussions with New York Islanders owner Charles Wang regarding the potential construction of a new arena for the NHL team near Citi Field, Newsday reported Wednesday.

Wilpon told Newsday that, although dealings have centered mostly around moving the hockey team from Long Island to Queens, he’s also talked with Wang about buying the Islanders.

The Islanders have been in what they consider to be an untenable situation at their current arena, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., throughout Wang’s 10-year tenure as owner. He has lobbied on several occasions to renovate the arena or tear it down and build a new one on the same site, a proposal called the Lighthouse Project, but talks with Town of Hempstead officials have not resulted in a deal, and there has been speculation that he would consider moving the franchise.

Perhaps one of our contacts at the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau can inform us whether or not the Islanders would have to pay the Rangers an additional territorial rights fee were they to relocate to Queens or Brooklyn. Certainly a name change would be in order, much as you can expect a new NHL arena for the club to feature many artifacts honoring the history….of the Brooklyn Dodgers.