Calum Ritchie Could Be Key to Solving Islanders’ Scoring Woes

When looking retrospectively at the 2025-26 New York Islanders campaign, there are many positives. Most revolve around Matthew Schaefer and the dominance he showed as an 18-year-old. However, one of the unsung positives was Calum Ritchie’s breakthrough into the Islanders’ lineup as a mainstay. New York has needed help with its supporting cast to overcome the scoring issues that have plagued this organization for a while. Ritchie looks like a genuine solution for the Islanders moving forward.

In 65 games last season, Ritchie had 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points. That’s a good rookie season. At just 21 years of age, he will continue to develop and improve. He could be a very respectable player for the Islanders in the near future, based on his counting stats alone, which is a big reason the Islanders chose to acquire him from the Colorado Avalanche. However, if you pull back the curtain and look below the surface, there is a player with more to offer offensively.

Ritchie’s Campaign

Ritchie started the season with nine straight pointless games. That’s not his fault; he played less than 10 minutes in five of those, but he wasn’t producing. Former Islanders’ head coach Patrick Roy had some trust issues with the Avalanche draft pick. However, new head coach Pete DeBoer decided to play him more, and he responded with four points in DeBoer’s first four games in charge. Ritchie ended the season with three pointless games, but there was a reason for optimism.

Then, when you look at the analytics, there’s even more hope. Ritchie played 875:18 across the entire season, averaging 13:28 a game. He had a goals for per 60 (GF/60) of 1.47. That’s not great. However, his expected goals for per 60 (xGF/60) was 2.43, according to Natural Stat Trick. That means he is capable of generating more end product than he did. As a young player, that’s going to get better.

Let’s frame it as a standing count, rather than a rate. Ritchie was on the ice for 17 5-on-5 goals and 28.03 expected goals for the Islanders. You can’t have .03 of a goal, so call it 28. That’s an indication that there’s a lot more happening than what is finding the back of the net. There’s more offense in there than the counting stats suggest, and that’s the best news the Islanders can take from this, given the historical offensive struggles.

Defensive Concerns

There are concerns with Ritchie’s defense. A minus-14 never looks good, but plus/minus is one of the most unreliable stats in hockey. Except, in this case, it’s spot on because the analytics don’t look much better. Ritchie had an expected goals against per 60 (xGA/60) of 3.15. Anything over three is bad. It’s a concern that there are three worse Islanders forwards in xGA/60 than Ritchie. It means his struggles are both present, but perhaps the symptom of a team-wide issue rather than poor play.

It’s also worth noting that a player’s defensive acumen is traditionally the last thing to develop. You only gain the ability to read the game at the NHL level by playing, and young players don’t have that experience to draw on. Ritchie is still so young that expecting him to be a finished product is unrealistic. It’s an area he’ll have to improve in to be a bigger part of the roster, but it’s worth waiting another season to see how things change under DeBoer before branding him as a defensive issue for the Islanders.

2026-27 Expectations

As a team, the Islanders will have playoff ambitions, and Ritchie must be a significant part of that. Last season, the gap between Mathew Barzal and the next closest forward to play more than 70 games in point production was 30, with Anders Lee. The former Islanders captain is not here anymore, so the gap to the next-closest forward to have played 70 games who’s still on the roster is 31, to Simon Holmstrom. Holmstrom is a fine player, but he had 41 points.

The Islanders need someone to break through and occupy that middle ground between the elite forwards like Barzal and Bo Horvat and the depth pieces like Holmstrom. That’s where Ritchie must take that next step in his development. He’s got a skill set that can do it, and he’ll be getting more ice time this season with the departed free agents opening the doors to some of the Islanders’ youth. It’s not an easy task to record 50 points in the NHL.

Depending on youth is always a dangerous game. As an unknown commodity, there is a chance Ritchie endures a sophomore struggle and cannot be the answer to the scoring woes of the Islanders. However, he could also explode and be the next star the Islanders build their franchise around. While these are both real possibilities, the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes.