With the New York Islanders set to face the Florida Panthers in their qualifying round series, I’ll be taking a pause from writing offseason articles and instead, I'll be breaking down how the teams match up against one another. This article will focus on which team has the better forward group.
The Panthers certainly didn’t have trouble scoring this season and ranked fourth in the league in goals for at 5-on-5, compared to New York’s 25th overall ranking. Florida has more stars up front and had three forwards who were all on pace for at least 70 points per 82 this season. Huberdeau was on pace for about 93 P/82, Barkov was on pace for 77 P/82 and Hoffman was on pace for 70 P/82. For the Islanders, Barzal was the only player to keep a pace above 70 P/82. Evgenii Dadonov was also still a quality forward for Florida and was on pace for 56 P/82, after two straight seasons where he averaged 70 P/82. All four players were already at 20 goals this year as well.
The Panthers had another top-six forward in Vincent Trocheck as well but moved him at the deadline (which was a poor decision) and got quantity over quality in return. However, after their their four key forwards, there’s a drop-off in quality. Brett Connolly, Erik Haula and Frank Vatrano are all quality third-line players but aren’t talented enough to truly excel in larger roles.
While the Islanders only have one real star in Mathew Barzal and a solid second-line center in Brock Nelson as their major producers, they also have Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee as capable top-six forwards. Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauvillier also make for better top-six forwards than Haula and Vatrano, though none of the four would be in the top-six on a contending team with strong forward depth.
New addition Jean-Gabriel Pageau is certainly the star of New York’s bottom-six and ensures the Islanders will be better down the middle, as the group of Barzal/Nelson/Pageau/Cizikas is stronger than Barkov/Haula/Wallmark/Acciari. That said, Florida’s bottom-six is going to be more capable of providing offense than New York’s bottom-six and as a whole, Florida has the better wingers.
Despite missing pieces in the top-six, the Panthers have the edge when it comes to forwards. They may be weak down the middle after Barkov but their wingers make up for it and their stars up front in Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Hoffman and even Evgenii Dadonov, give the Panthers the more dangerous forward group.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Islanders Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Islanders for updates on articles, Islanders news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted on the weekend):
Which team do you believe has the stronger forward group?
New York Islanders Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»