NEW YORK -- Matt Duchene waited more than 10 months to get traded by the Colorado Avalanche. He will have to wait another five days, travel nearly 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean and line up against the Avalanche in order to say a proper goodbye to all of his former teammates.

The long-awaited Duchene blockbuster was finally completed Sunday, when the nine-year veteran was pulled off the ice and traded to the Ottawa Senators in a three-team deal that was completed in the first period of the Avalanche's 6-4 loss to the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.

"Didn't watch too much of the game," Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic said with a grin afterward. "I was on the phone a lot. It probably doesn't happen often like this, but you know what, you never know when it's finally going to get done."

The midgame trade capped a nearly year-long effort by Sakic to find a new home for Duchene, who was selected by the Avalanche with the third overall pick for the 2009 draft and played 586 games for the franchise. With the Avalanche skidding last season -- Colorado finished with 48 points, the fewest by a non-expansion team since 1998-99 -- Duchene asked Sakic for a trade around Christmas.

Sakic, looking to stock the cupboard for the rebuilding club, remained patient in trade talks even as the Avalanche (8-6-0) got off to a surprising start this season. The deal Sunday netted Colorado four players and three draft picks from the Senators and Nashville Predators, the latter of whom sent star center Kyle Turley to Ottawa.

From the Senators, the Avalanche received 18-year-old rookie center Shane Bowers, veteran goalie Andrew Hammond, a first-round pick in the 2018 draft and a third-round pick in the 2019 draft. If the first-round pick is in the top 10, the Senators have the option to hold it and give the Avs their 2019 top pick, but would be required to do so, regardless of its spot in the order. From the Predators, Colorado obtained two rookies -- defenseman Samuel Girard and left winger Vladislav Kamenev -- as well as a second-round pick in the 2018 draft.

"It's been awhile, but we wanted to make sure we had the right deal," Sakic said "I just told (Duchene) be patient, at some point it was going to get done. We're building and want to keep building with youth, and we feel like we accomplished that."

Sakic said the deal was almost done before the game but that he couldn't scratch Duchene since it wasn't finalized yet. The trade was finally completed when Turley agreed to a six-year extension with the Predators.

At that point, Sakic made the call to the Colorado bench. Duchene, who played 1:59 Sunday, left the ice for the last time as a member of the Avalanche with 10:37 remaining in the period, when he skated into tunnel with injured left winger Blake Comeau (ear).

"I kind of knew before they told me, I saw them talking on the bench," Duchene said as he left Barclays Center during the second period. "I'll have a good story for people one day."

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who played more than six seasons with Duchene, said Duchene was already gone by the time the team arrived in the locker room at the first intermission.

"So weird that it's come down to this," Landeskog said. "I thought at least (there) was going to be a handshake and a bit of conversation, a hug or whatever. But it's business, and we can't forget that."

Landeskog and the Avalanche can exchange those pleasantries with Duchene on Friday, when the Senators play Colorado in the opener of a two-game "Global Series" in Stockholm, Sweden.

"Being pulled in a game, then to be playing my first two games against my old team is going to be pretty strange," Duchene said.

The Islanders (8-5-1) were well on the way to their sixth win in eight games as Duchene packed his belongings. New York led 2-0 after the first period thanks to goals by Scott Mayfield and Jordan Eberle.

Nathan MacKinnon scored 40 seconds into the second period for the Avalanche, but the Islanders pulled away with three unanswered goals -- two by Nick Leddy, who produced the first multi-goal game of his eight-year career, and one by Johnny Boychuk -- by the midway point of the period.

Eberle scored 1:23 into the third to complete his first two-goal game since the Islanders acquired him from the Edmonton Oilers on June 22. Mathew Barzal collected a franchise rookie-record five assists, one shy of the overall team record set by Hall of Famer Mike Bossy on Jan. 6, 1981.

"Five assists in a game, that's pretty special," Islanders coach Doug Weight said.

Landeskog scored with 6:58 left in the second, and Alexander Kerfoot scored twice in the final 30 seconds of the third for the Avalanche.

Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss recorded 31 saves.

"It's disappointing, the last five or six minutes, we don't have his back," Weight said of Greiss.

Avalanche goalie Jonathan Bernier made 22 saves.

NOTES: The Islanders improved to 11-2-0 in home games at Barclays Center against Western Conference foes playing the second game of a back-to-back set. The Avalanche beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday. ... Avalanche D Anton Lindholm sustained a broken jaw Saturday night and will miss the trip to his native Sweden later this week.