New York Islanders Scott Mayfield Impressive Start to Season

Scott Mayfield has found playing time hard to come by for the New York Islanders. With the start he’s having to the 2018-19 season its hard to understand why.

With a three-point night against the Los Angeles Kings, Scott Mayfield now sits with five points in four games for the New York Islanders. Those five points account for just under half of Mayfield’s production from last season.

Mayfield has half the production in less than a tenth of the time.

It’s clear that Mayfield should have a career year in terms of production this season. Of course, continuing on his point-per-game pace won’t last. But he’ll certainly eclipse the 12 points he put up last season.

We should have seen it coming. Scott Mayfield has been showing that he can not only be the big man on the ice, but that he can chip in with some production as well.

Production With Little Ice-Time

The 2018-19 season will be Scott Mayfield’s third in the NHL. He’s played a few games between 2013 and 2016, but never more than six in a season.

In his last three seasons with the New York Islanders, he’s been a great contributor. Even though Mayfield doesn’t get a ton of ice-time he still produces.

*stats from NaturalStatTrick and for 5on5 play

Mayfield is generating over a point over 60 minutes and a rebound (meaning he’s getting a shot on net and forcing the goalie into a save) more that one per 60 minutes of ice time. That’s fantastic.

This isn’t to argue that Mayfield needs a bigger role on the team. Playing on the team’s third pairing seems to fit Mayfield well. What this post is trying to argue is that Mayfield deserves to be on the ice.

Mayfield has already been scratched twice by the Islanders this season. Luca Sbisa has received ice-time on both of those occasions. Two seasons ago Mayfield only played 47 games for the Islanders and 25 the year before that. Despite what Mayfield has been able to do when on the ice.

To be fair, last season Mayfield did miss some time due to injury. He missed a few weeks in February with a lower-body injury and a few dates in January with an upper-body injury. But that in no way explains him missing 35 games of the regular season.

Scott Mayfield needs to play regularly. The production he brings from the back-end is exactly what this team needs. Add his 54.3CF% and +13.4 relative CF% so far this season and you have a fantastic anchor for the Islanders blueline.

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Scott Mayfield needs to stay on the roster. With the production, he can generate he’s too good to be a healthy scratch for the New York Islanders.