NHL
Islanders Lose Tavares But Gain Legendary GM Lamoriello and a Stanley Cup Winning Coach.
The New York Islanders Ownership team brought in a new Head Coach and General Manager in hopes to lure John Tavares back to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Barry Trotz and Lou Lamoriello did not put up a strong fight and Tavares left for Toronto. John Tavares wasn’t the only player that left the team. It seemed like the whole team was jumping ship.
The Islanders lost much of their depth to Free Agency and are weaker coming into this season with a shallower defensive core. Young prospects are going to get their chance in 2018-19 and Mathew Barzal will look to repeat and surpass his Calder Trophy-winning season.
Have the Islanders Gotten Better?
Obviously losing John Tavares is not going to be good for your chances in this category, so immediately the answer is no. The New York Islanders do not have much down the middle after Mathew Barzal. This will probably not be the best season for fans but there never were many in the seats at Barclays Center. However, for the next few seasons, the New York Islanders will play a number of home games at Nassau Coliseum until their new arena is complete.
Additions
The Islanders added Valtteri Filppula to strengthen the center core behind Barzal. Filppula played 81 games last year in Philadelphia and scored 11 goals with 22 assists. Leo Komarov and Matt Martin were added in free agency. Both players played with the Maple Leafs last season and combined for a total of 27 points. Tom Kuhnhackl was another free agent pick up. Kuhnhackl put up just eight points in 69 games last year with the Penguins. Jan Kovar was signed to a one year deal by the New York Islanders. Kovar played 54 games last year in the KHL and tallied 35 points with 28 assists.
Robin Lehner was added to share time in net with Thomas Greiss. Lehner played 53 games last year with the Buffalo Sabres and won 14 games putting up a GAA of 3.01 and an SV% of .908.
Subtractions
Losing a captain is never fun for a team nor its fans which is why many people took it hard when Tavares left. However, he did leave and life goes on. Last season, John Tavares put up his highest point total since the 2014-15 season. In 82 games, Tavares scored 37 goals and assisted 47 times. He will be a huge loss to the team for 2018-19. Jason Chimera was also not resigned. Chimera played 58 games last year, scoring twice and adding nine assists. Calvin de Haan was a big loss defensively for the New York Islanders. While only playing in 33 games last season, de Haan put up 11 assists and one goal. As a defensive defenseman, de Haan was on the ice for 54.8 percent of the defensive zone faceoffs for the Islanders last year.
Between the pipes, the Islanders lost Jaroslav Halak. Halak played in 58 games last year and won 20. Halak however, did not have a good GAA or SV%. In terms of Goals Against Halak posted a 3.01 and at the Save Percentage department, he stopped 90.8 percent.
Where the New York Islanders Stand
The players added minus the players subtracted come out to a Net Gain of zero (107-107=0). This may cause some fans to look at just this number and think optimistically about the upcoming season but there may be no hope. The New York Islanders tried building a team around John Tavares and got nowhere due to poor management. Now that Tavares is gone, the team will be playing in hopes to start drafting guys to build around Mathew Barzal. This next year will be an interesting one but I have the Islanders slotted in 8th place of the Metropolitan Division.
After this year, I am sure the light at the end of the tunnel will appear brighter, you just have to trust the process. Just look at what Lou Lamoriello did with the Maple Leafs.
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