New York Islanders Mid-Season Player Grades

The First Line

Right away you’ll see where the talent lies in this Islanders team. It won’t come as much of a surprise to those watching every game but Anders Lee has been top-notch for the Isles.

It’s amazing what that goal-scoring run has done for him and the team. We all knew it couldn’t be sustained for the remainder of the year. But the threat is there and very real.

Only 3% of the league is scoring at a higher per-60 rate 5-on-5 than Anders Lee. That’s players like Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, and Michael Grabner (ugh). His assists are way low, but with scoring like that who needs assists?

Tavares should be higher on this listing because of everything he does for this team. If it wasn’t for Tavares who knows where this team would be? But that Corsi-differential drags his numbers down. In fact, they drag the numbers down for each and every Isles player. Except for Adam Pelech who’s the only Isles player to not have a negative rating at 0.

When Casey Cizikas received that mighty upgrade on his contract this summer it was hard to justify why. A fourth liner getting $3.35 million per year wasn’t a typical NHL deal. His 17 points in 36 games played, look pretty good. But he’ll have to keep that pace up for the rest of the season if his price tag is to look at all justifiable.