New York Islanders Expectations For Shane Prince

The New York Islanders brought Shane Prince back on a cheap two-year deal. Here’s what you can expect from Prince this year.

Shane Prince was someone that not many people knew about when he was traded to the New York Islanders. Although he started out slow, Prince became someone the Islanders relied on come playoff time. We continue to give expectations for players in 2016-2017 and today we look at Shane Prince.

Three goals in 20 regular season games is nothing to write home about, but he is known for his performance in Game 1 of the Lightning series in which he scored two goals.

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Prince was much better in the playoffs, and he played a bigger role than expected. He was rewarded with a two-year contract. He’s a very reasonable cap hit for the Islanders at $850 thousand a year.

You can pretty much pencil in the first and fourth line for the Islanders in 2016, it’s the middle lines that are unknown. That’s where Prince comes in.

Offensive Production

As I stated before Prince will fall between the second or third line. Although he won’t put up the numbers of an ideal top 6 forward. He’s not a bad player, I just don’t think I can see Prince being a real scoring threat for this Islanders team.

Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome and Anders Lee have more scoring potential in my mind over Prince. The thing is that the Islanders are looking to move Strome back to his natural position of center.

Which means that the centers will be John Tavares, Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome and Casey Cizikas. If I’m making the lines Anders Lee is my second line left wing. That would result in Shane Prince falling on the third line with Strome at center.

Strome and Prince have worked well together as seen in the playoffs (go to 1:08 in the video)

Can there be more of Strome to Prince? I think we will see it, just not at a high rate. Strome slumped terribly in his sophomore year. Are we really expected to believe Strome is ready to command a line with Shane Prince and either Nikolai Kulemin or Josh Bailey. Those aren’t exactly offensive juggernauts on either of his wings.

The Prediction

I think a realistic number to expect Prince to be at is 8-10 goals with 20 points being his ceiling.

Look at how much he is making, are you really expecting a lot out of Shane Prince? If you are I’m sorry but you’re going to be disappointed. That’s not to say that Prince is a bum or completely useless to this Islanders team.

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You just have to realize that Shane Prince is a role player for the Islanders. He doesn’t have the expectations that a Nelson or Strome has and that’s completely okay. You need to have guys like this on your team. It’s a long season,he will be a factor in some Islanders wins this year.