The 2024-25 season has reached the holiday break as teams won’t play again until Dec. 27, so for the players, coaches, and everyone else, it’s a much-needed few days off. The New York Islanders head into the break stumbling, to put it lightly. Just when they looked like they turned things around with a 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 21, they put together their worst performance of the season. Their last game was on Dec. 23, a game against a Buffalo Sabres team that lost 13 games in a row, and it wasn’t close (it was a 7-1 loss).
Related: 4 Ways the Islanders Can Fix Their Hapless Offense
The Islanders head into the break with a 13-15-7 record, which is tied with the New York Rangers for the worst in the Metropolitan Division. For the first time in a few seasons, they are playing like a last-place team, and with 35 games already in the books, the struggles aren’t a fluke and it’s clear that this team is reflected based on their record.
Islanders Need a Retool
The Islanders need to hit the reset button and it’s not even a debate at this point. This team, aside from playing poorly and looking like a lifeless group, has become stale and must move on from some players, notably the aging players who are preventing them from pivoting.
The first question is what does a retool look like under general manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello? He’s not a GM that trades away players typically so it’s harder to see him making a handful of moves, but there are a few trades he can get done and a path to retool with him as the GM. Trading Kyle Palmieri, a pending unrestricted free agent (UFA) who is having a great season, is what comes to mind as it will give the Islanders a reasonable return to help them become a contender by the start of next season.
The other part of this question is what a retool looks like without Lamoriello. It’s possible he refuses to sell at the trade deadline and with the team slowly declining, the ownership group will be forced to move on from him and find a new GM to clean up the mess. If that happens, then a teardown and possibly a rebuild are on the table. The Islanders have a lot of veterans they can trade to help turn the team into a younger group, and a new front office would get to work doing just that.
The bottom line is that this team must make some changes, even small ones to make sure they aren’t in the same place next season as they are now. A coaching change isn’t the answer, not in the short or long term. Lamoriello’s on his third head coach since taking the job and when the Islanders continue to play poorly, it’s safe to say that the person behind the bench isn’t the problem. If the Islanders are going to improve, things must improve at the top or with the roster on the ice by the start of next season.
Sorokin Was Set Up to Fail
Last season, the Islanders saw firsthand that their elite goaltender, Ilya Sorokin, while great, can only do so much. He was overworked by former head coach Lane Lambert, who not only started him too many games early on in the season but didn’t help him out on the ice with a defense that allowed opponents to fire shots at will on him. It’s why Sorokin wasn’t the same in the second half of the season even with Patrick Roy as the head coach. The Islanders needed a goaltending duo to split starts.
This season, the Islanders rolled with a duo early on as Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov split starts. However, with Varlamov out, Roy has rolled with Sorokin, starting him in the last 11 games this team has played. Sure, he’s a better option than Marcus Hogberg but 11 consecutive starts will wear down any goaltender, even one of the best in the game. Based on how the past few starts have gone, the wear and tear is starting to show.
Sorokin has looked awful in the past five starts, allowing 21 goals while putting together a .836 save percentage (SV%); he had a .912 SV% before the recent stretch. Needless to say, nobody needs a break more than him. When the Islanders return to action, it’s in their best interest to start Hogberg for a few games until Varlamov returns. Sorokin must find his footing in the second half of the season and helping with the workload is the best way to do that.
Islanders Have Some But Not Enough Young Pieces
Isaiah George is a pleasant surprise for the Islanders and one of the bright spots this season. He’s a young, 20-year-old defenseman who is still learning the position but has played great and shown the upside he can bring to the blue line. George provides hope for the future and also shows what the Islanders can look like after they retool the roster.
It’s not just George but Maxim Tsyplakov and Kyle MacLean also are young players the Islanders can build around. The two forwards have their issues but can be reliable skaters in the future. Sure, MacLean’s not going to impress anyone on the offensive end of the ice but he’s a reliable defensive forward. Likewise, Tsyplakov doesn’t play the same two-way game that other forwards in the lineup do but the two are still key parts of the forward unit both this season and next.
These young skaters make it easy to believe the Islanders have a youth movement in the works. They don’t. Outside of the players mentioned above, the farm system is depleted. The Bridgeport Islanders, their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, have a few promising prospects but not much else. Outside of that, the best hope is for Cole Eiserman, their 2024 first-round selection, to join the NHL roster sooner rather than later.
Otherwise, the Islanders’ best bet for a youth movement is to hope they win the draft lottery and land an elite prospect. It’s why this team is skeptical of a rebuild. Without a great prospect pool, it takes multiple seasons to build up a great team again and the Islanders, with a teardown, wouldn’t contend for a while.
Dobson & Romanov Can Carry the Defense
In a season where there are a few pending UFAs and restricted free agents (RFAs) that need new contracts at the end of the season, the Islanders must find out who they can build around. Brock Nelson is the ideal player to extend but if the Islanders want to contend, they need to win at the blue line. That starts with extending both Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov.
Dobson is a polarizing defenseman for the Islanders and the fanbase particularly. He’s a minus-7 player and his aggressive style of play makes it appear like he’s a liability on the defensive end of the ice. His 4.5 defensive point shares this season and 20 in his six-year career suggest otherwise. As the primary defenseman at this point, his numbers are underwhelming but he remains far and beyond the best playmaker and scorer on a unit that otherwise lacks that presence.
Then there’s Romanov who does all the things Dobson doesn’t. He’s the stay-at-home option who blocks shots, delivers hard hits, and creates turnovers. For all the questionable decisions Lamoriello made as the GM, the Romanov trade was one that worked out and has given the Islanders a much-needed young defenseman to help out an aging group.
This offseason, both skaters are up for extensions and they must be paid. Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, and Scott Mayfield are entering the twilight of their careers and the Islanders need a new trio to lead the defense. Dobson, Romanov, and George look like the group to do that.
Other Takeaways From the Islanders’ Season So Far
If the Islanders are going to turn the season around and make a push for the playoffs, the success will come from the same handful of skaters who got them there last season. Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat scored 56 goals and added 92 assists on the top line last season to will the Islanders into the playoffs. That connection, with Anthony Duclair thrown in on the wing, can get this team back on track and in the playoff discussion.
Anders Lee is a reminder that injuries, especially season-ending ones like the one he suffered in 2021, take time to recover from. His resurgence at 34 years old, is not only great to see but it suddenly has the team wondering how he’ll finish his career. In the past few seasons, he’s looked like a player who wouldn’t be on the team in the future but now, the captain looks poised to age well and finish his career as an Islander.
The Islanders need a big turnaround to be back in the playoffs. Only five points separate them from the Ottawa Senators, the team that holds the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference at the moment, but they must leap past four teams just to get in. It’s why the trade rumors will start to surface surrounding this team, especially if things don’t improve when they get back.
