Islanders' Okposo focused on season, not contract or trade rumors

New York Islanders right wing Kyle Okposo has done his best to turn a deaf ear to all of the talk surrounding both a possible contract extension and trade rumors.

Set to begin the final season of his five-year, $14 million contract, Okposo insisted to Arthur Staple of Newsday that he is merely focused on the upcoming campaign.

"It's pretty hard not to (hear the talk) when you go somewhere and everyone's asking you whether you're going to be traded or not," the 27-year-old Minnesota native told Staple. "It's part of the business and I'm not naive to that. There's a lot of moving parts.

"Am I upset about it? No. There's things that upset you on a daily basis in this business and you just have to go with it. As far as contracts, trade speculation, I don't want that to be a distraction. I just want to go out and play the game."

The seventh overall pick of the 2006 draft, Okposo scored 18 goals and set up 33 others in 60 games last season. The power forward missed 22 contests due to emergency surgery to repair a detached retina in his eye.

Okposo collected career highs in tallies (27), assists (42), points (69) in 2013-14 and has recorded 305 points (117 goals, 188 assists) in 450 career contests.

(h/t Newsday)