New York Islanders Gain Through Substraction

The New York Islanders were one of the least-penalized teams in the NHL last season, and with their off-season acquisition that trend looks like it’s going to continue in 2016-17.

Letting Matt Martin go was tough for New York Islanders fans. Martin was a true heart and soul player. He was a great presence in the dressing room and on the ice. Not just because he was a great teammate, but because he cleared a lot of room on the ice.

Matt Martin lead the league in hits over the last three seasons. No one even comes close to those 1,100 hits. Cal Clutterbuck comes close with 901 over the same period of time, but that’s still just shy of 200 hits.

But with all those hits came obvious penalty trouble. Martin had ten roughing minors called against him last season, and totaled 119 penalty minutes for the entire season. Good enough for eighth in total penalty minutes across the entire league.

Mission Impossible: Replacing Martin

In terms of hitting, it’s going to be impossible to fill the void. Thought both Ladd and Chimera aren’t shy to use their body out on the ice. Both notched over 100 hits last season. They’re just better at staying out of the penalty box.

Take away the penalty minutes for the players we lost and take on the penalty minutes for the players we added we have a net loss of 47 penalty minutes. No of course that won’t translate 1:1 next season, but the point is clear: we’re going to get into less penalty trouble.

To be fair to Martin his 119 penalty minutes also include his 11 fighting majors; which is something to consider. If you think that fighting is a way to police the game by the players, who’s going to do that for us next season?

It’s true that fighting is slowly going the way of the Dodo bird, but it still exists. Neither of the players that we picked up are going to step into that role. Nor should they.

We’re going to be in less penalty trouble in 2016-17 that’s for sure. But it’s not like it was killing us last season. We ranked 27th in the number of times we were short-handed in 2015-16, and we were ranked 4th in terms of penalty-kill efficiency.

Next: Failed Coaching Led To Tavares

It seems like we just got stronger in an area that we were already really strong in. Which come playoff time is going to be a big difference maker for us.