Off-season: What's next for the New York Islanders after Eastern Conference finals visit
After making the Eastern Conference finals, the Isles now have to tap dance around the salary cap, signing players and resist tempatation to enter "win now mode"
The run sadly came to an end. While some might have been surprised the New York Islanders made the Eastern Conference final (ECF), LowAttendance was not.
If there was one team better poised to benefit from a 3-month, mid-season lay off than the Islanders, I’d like to know which team it was.
Adam Pelech was back; Barry Trotz always whips the team into shape early in the season; Brocktober is always a thing. The Isles were always going to be a chance to make a run and the team delivered.
Then the team met Tampa. The Isles put up a good fight, but it was pretty evident Tampa was the better team in the series.
What next?
The Islanders now enter a tricky period to navigate for a lot of teams.
Lord Stanley has just been dangled in front of their eyes after so many years between drinks. The front office can’t give in to temptation and make short-term fixes to solve last season’s deficiencies.
The Isles also have to ask the question: How good are we?
The Isles were very fortunate to have the season paused when it did. As a fan, the Isles are chronically underrated and it is confusing but you can’t deny how lucky they were to have the season pause when it did.
They were on a 7-game losing streak and their best defenseman, Adam Pelech, was not playing again that season.
In the playoffs, the Isles took advantage of that luck, as they should have. It is no knock to say they took advantage of it. But after steamrolling their first three opponents, they came up against clearly the best team in the East and possibly the league and it showed.
The front office will be wrestling with this conundrum: how do we improve the team while staying under the cap and also ensure we don’t jeopardise the future of the team.
Single points of failure
The Islanders are a good team. Of that there is no doubt. But we saw over the past season that the team make-up is fragile and walks a proverbial tightrope.
Adam Pelech went down and the team went .500 from then on. The 4th line plays an important role for the team and when a piece is missing the Isles can struggle.
The Islanders iced their best line-up during the playoffs. None of the back-ups were forcing Barry Trotz to think about who he wanted to play.
Now, some fans will say that Barry and Lou Lamoriello are heavily biased towards veterans and that is probably true. But they’re more biased to winning. Ultimately, they’ll play the person who gives the team the best chance, and the take away here is that no demanded selection.
Even during the season there wasn’t a Devon Toews forcing the coach’s hand (sure injury initially forced this but he has kept the spot every since).
Kieffer Bellows flashed but overall chances they weren’t seized.
The issue here is a lack of depth in the organisation.
Earlier in the season when Casey Cizikas went down Cole Bardreau came in. Bardreau played well but really isn’t a long term option for the team. Tom Kuhnhackl is the same. Kuhnhackl seems to play well in bursts but over long periods can’t keep that up. You could possibly throw in Ross Johnston to that mix too.
This is where the Isles have to walk a tightrope. Garth Snow made some great picks (Anders Lee, Mathew Barzal, Devon Toews) but only two seasons after he was let go and seemingly the only legitimate shots are Kieffer Bellows and Otto Koivula, both of whom are still question marks.
You give Lou the benefit of the doubt that some of his draft picks will start coming on over the next few seasons but even still, they aren’t exactly breaking down the barn door.
In the upcoming draft, the Isles don’t have a 1st or 2nd round pick (that could change of course via trade) which makes it harder to build up the prospect pool.
Not to mention the Isles will surely be tight to the cap after (hopefully) re-signing Barzal, Ryan Pulock and Toews.
How many more times can Lou find a veteran player like Derrick Brassard or Valteri Filppulla? A veteran player willing to sign a cheap, short-term contract to play on the third line and have tremendous impact. A whiff could be problematic with a lack of depth players pushing for inclusion.
Hopefully, the team recognises that for all the recent success it has had, rushing into “win now mode” could harm the long-term prospects of a team that is ready to be in perennial playoff contention with its current core group.
Repeatable success
Having said the above, the thing that is exciting about the Islanders is that the success they’ve had is repeatable.
Barry’s system is one that does its best to eliminate luck being a factor of other teams winning. For the most part, the Isles don’t live or die by a single tipped puck, particularly in the defensive zone. Opposing teams earn their goals and the Islanders certainly earn theirs.
This is in stark contrast to the last season of Doug Weight as a coach where the team had no problem finding the back of the net, but couldn’t for the life of them stop other teams scoring.
In that season, the Isles were relying on luck to stop opposing teams from scoring, whereas now, they have much more control over their fortune.
It also means that the above single points of failure can be corrected. It is a lot easier to find a 4th line guy willing to stick his leg in front of a slapshot than it is to find a 40-goal scorer. The guys eating pucks are way cheaper too.
With even some minor upgrades to the bottom six forwards, combined with Barry’s defensive structure and (theoretically) good goaltending from Semyon Varlarmov and Ilya Sorokin, the Isles are set up for years of repeatable success.
Exciting times are ahead for the team and I’m looking forward to see what moves Lou cooks up over the off-season.