The old Islanders are turning over a new leaf
This week we’re focusing on the Penguins’ opposition within the Metropolitan Division. How did their summers go, how are we feeling? Who left? Who stayed? Who is new? Where are they trying to go in the next year? We’ll look into that and more.
Metro Moves: New York Rangers
Metro Moves: Carolina Hurricanes
The New York Islanders are doing things their own sort of way. GM Lou Lamoriello always does things with his own flair. A great big, bold Lamoriello move was the idea to bring Patrick Roy back to the NHL for the first time since 2016 by hiring him in the middle of last season.
It worked out pretty well, Roy changed the dynamic of the team and was able to coax a 20-12-5 finish out of the Islanders — good enough to get them back to the playoffs, if only just barely. They did virtually nothing in the quick trip to the post-season, quickly bowing out to Carolina in five games in the first round.
This summer has only brought in modest changes. NYI waves goodbye to long-time fourth line forwards Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. Martin had been with the Isles since 2009 (save a two-year hiatus where he played in Toronto from 2016-18). Clutterbuck had been with the Isles since 2013. And just like that, after so many games and years, most of the “identity” from the NYI’s identity line is in the rear view mirror.
With those depatures clears room for some new blood. In an effort to improve on their 22nd finish in goals last season, the Islanders signed dynamic winger Anthony Duclair (who has played under Roy before at the junior level). NYI also took a swing on a KHL 31-goal scorer Max Tsyplakov. It remains to be seen if the 26-year old will be more Panarin (boom) or Plotnikov (bust) as far as KHL additions go, but it’s a low-risk chance on a potential wildcard addition that might be able to give them something. (Not many are expecting the extreme of a Panarin/Plotnikov difference, by the way).
Other than that, it was a mostly quiet summer for an Islanders team that is locked in with a lot of long-term deals to their players. There was talk the team considered, but opted against, buying out the final two seasons of J-G Pageau’s contract to open up some space. Oliver Wahlstrom and Mike Reilly were brought back on relatively cheap one-year deals to help fill out the bottom of the lineup, but other than that there was little movement of excitement on the Island this summer beyond the Duclair addition.
That makes for a ‘business as usual on the Island’ type of off-season. They made no major trades, Duclair should bring some badly needed flair and skill, it will be weird not seeing Martin and Clutterbuck give board shaking hits as the puck gets advanced against them anyways, but that’s about it. Since Lamoriello has built this team with long-term deals that leads to little wiggle room, they’ve ended up with a similar team as last year. You can probably mostly rinse and repeat this for next season, the Islanders should be not bad but not very good for a while to come. There’s a certain predictability in the somewhat high floor but also very real unimpressive ceiling type of club that has been constructed here.
A key to the upcoming season and area for improvement will be seeing how or if Ilya Sorokin bounces back. He’s coming off of the worst season of his brief NHL career in 2023-24 in terms of save percentage, goals against and shutouts. By the end of the year it was backup Semyon Varlamov as the top choice goalie for the playoffs. Varlamov was something close to the “Nedeljkovic to Sorokin’s Jarry” to put it in Penguin terminology, with the presumed backup ending up playing his way into starting 12 of the Islanders’ final 18 games (regular season plus playoffs).
Given Roy’s pedigree knowing a thing or two about the goalie position, how he manages Sorokin and the Islander net in general will be interesting to observe, given that the two didn’t get off to the greatest start.
Projected lineup, in part from Daily Faceoff:
Anthony Duclair – Bo Horvat – Mathew Barzal
Maxim Tsyplakov – Brock Nelson – Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee – J-G Pageau – Pierre Engvall
Oliver Wahlstrom – Casey Cizikias – Simon Holmstrom
Alexander Romanov / Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech / Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly / Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
Most outlets seem to think the Russian import Tsyplakov will be getting a real shot at the top-six, if he isn’t up for it the team can rotate Lee back up and have depth options in Hudson Fasching and Kyle MacLean who could then enter the lineup.
The Roy in year two experience should make for fascinating theater. His only other NHL coaching job with the Avalanche saw him do really well in the first season in 2013-14 (52-22-8, first place finish), before a shocking fall that led to a seventh place finish (out of seven teams) the following season in 2014-15. The Islanders don’t have that far to fall, but Roy has worn out his welcome quickly before. Combine that with Lamoriello being well-known throughout his historic career to have a super quick trigger finger when it comes to firing coaches and you’ve got the making of a potentially combustible (and fun) atmosphere if the team gets back to looking as stale as they were during the middle of last year.