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It’s no secret that the New York Islanders lack top forwards, with scoring having been the biggest issue for the team over the last few years.
Last offseason, the Islanders failed to add a top forward and even lost Jordan Eberle, who was one of the team’s leading scorers. However, despite knowing the team’s offense didn’t look overly promising heading into the season, many of the Islanders’ forwards still failed to meet expectations.
While Brock Nelson had a career-year for the Islanders, he was arguably the only forward on the team who actually surpassed expectations.
That said, Kieffer Bellows did also produce at a solid rate through 45 games this year, while Jean-Gabriel Pageau also produced pretty much as expected and Zach Parise was able to add secondary scoring with a really solid back half of the year.
However, there were far too many forwards who didn’t produce as needed. Kyle Palmieri’s pace of 18 goals per 82 games this season was actually higher than last season’s pace, but it’s still drastically lower than his five prior seasons with the New Jersey Devils, where he was pretty consistently on pace for 30 goals per 82. Palmieri had a rough first half of the year and despite a much better back half, his first full season with the Islanders was underwhelming.
Like Palmieri, Anders Lee also had a great back half of the year but took way too long to get going. He’s counted on to be one of the team’s highest scoring forwards but just couldn’t produce through the first half of the season.
Then of the team’s top young forwards, there was a major decline in scoring results. Mathew Barzal’s goals per 82 pace dropped from 25 G/82 last season down to 17 G/82 this season, while Anthony Beauvillier’s pace was cut in half, down to 13 G/82 from 26 G/82. Oliver Wahlstrom also struggled to take a step this season, down to a pace of 15 G/82 from 22 G/82 during the 2020-21 season.
Josh Bailey actually did up his goal totals but his point pace dropped to below 50 points per 82 for the first time since the 2015-16 season, while Casey Cizikas had one of his lowest points per game averages of his entire career.
There’s no doubt the Islanders need to make a move to add offense this offseason if they want to get back to being a playoff team next year. That said, while the Islanders are still clearly lacking top forwards, many of the forwards they’ve counted on over the last couple seasons really didn’t produce even as expected this season, which was a significant contributing factor in the down year.
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