New York Islanders: Barzal, Beauvillier & Bailey

When it was announced that Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier made the opening night roster there was a lot of excitement for the New York Islanders fanbase. But after the first three games, there is a lot to be critical on how the Islanders brass is handling the situation.

Play the Kids

There are a number of factors to consider regarding Barzal and Beauvillier even after they made the opening night roster for the New York Islanders.

First off nobody wants the two former first round picks to be rushed and hurt their long-term development. Everyone is in agreement on that. The Islanders learned a valuable lesson with Nino Niederreiter in his rookie year. Nobody wants to see the Isles go down that wrong path again with any of their prospects.

Granted the Islanders only have nine games to decide if either or both Barzal and Beauvillier should stay with the Islanders the entire year or return to their junior clubs. Most of the time a decision like this is not clear-cut. In addition, an NHL general manager has to consider the cost of using a player’s first year on their entry-level contract. In a salary cap world, this is an important consideration.

But in making this difficult decision for both Barzal and Beauvillier can the Islanders play them both night in and night out and see what they have with the talented youngsters? So far the Islanders plan has been to rotate Barzal and Beauvillier. Beauvillier played games one and three, while Barzal played game two.

While the Islanders have depth at forward this makes little sense. Garth Snow and Jack Capuano have to play the kids on a nightly basis to see where they stand in their development and if they are ready for the NHL. Unless the whole point of this plan was to give Barzal and Beauvillier a taste of the NHL to help them with their development before sending them back to juniors.

In Sunday night’s game Casey Cizikas suffered a leg injury. It’s not known how severe the injury is. But if there is a silver lining to the Cizikas injury it could be it gives the Islanders the opportunity to play Barzal at center the next few games, while not moving Strome to wing. Let’s see what the kids can do the next two weeks by playing them every game.

Bailey

It’s clear Josh Bailey is going to get a shot to play on the top line with John Tavares and Andrew Ladd. In addition, Bailey has seen time on the Islanders number one power play unit.

According to Capuano, Bailey had a strong camp and has earned the chance to play on the Islanders top line. Since there are no clear cut candidates at least for now in terms of playing right wing with Tavares and Ladd, let’s see what Bailey can do.

Bailey has had two issues in his career. He has been inconsistent with his play and at times he has failed to do the little things that help teams win hockey games. Consistency is a must for Bailey.

The other issue is something out of Bailey’s control. Bailey was the first pick of the “Garth Snow” rebuild in the 2008 draft (ninth overall). Because of that prominence, the fanbase thought they were getting a future core player for the franchise for years to come.

That has not happened. Snow traded down twice to select Bailey ninth overall and ironically in one of those trades Garth picked up a second round pick in the 08 draft which turned into Travis Hamonic, who has become part of the Islanders core.

Next: Isles Hopes and Dreams for 2016

Bailey just turned 27 and is getting a great opportunity to start the season. Can he take advantage of it?