New York Islanders: Michael Dal Colle gets first start of the season

Former fifth overall pick from the 2014 NHL Draft, Michael Dal Colle, is making his New York Islanders season debut today vs Dallas.

It’s been a long road to the NHL for Michael Dal Colle. MDC was selected fifth overall by the New York Islanders in 2014 as a power forward who had a knack for goal scoring. In most cases, top-five picks are impact players rather quickly.

Dal Colle would go on to play three years in the OHL after being drafted before moving over to the AHL. Dal Colle didn’t exactly light the world on fire in the AHL. In his first full season, 2016-2017, he had 41 points (15 goals, 26 assists).

It’s not that those numbers are necessarily bad, they’re just not at the level that a premiere draft pick’s should be. He followed that up with an all-time poor season last year scoring just 24 points (7 goals, 17 assists) as a 21-year-old in the A.

Still, at the end of the year due to injuries, Michael Dal Colle finally made his NHL debut but was a nonfactor. In four games he had no points and left no traces of playing with the Islanders.

Now, a hot start this year has yielded another call-up to the NHL. In 14 games with the Sound Tigers, Dal Colle has 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists). MDC playing at a point per game pace is exactly what we were looking for out of him all along.

After one game on the scratch pad, Dal Colle is making his season debut today in the matinee matchup against the Dallas Stars.

Barry Trotz wouldn’t reveal the lines but you’d have to assume Dal Colle is likely playing on either the second or third line depending on where he wants Anthony Beauvillier to be.

Now, just because Dal Colle is making his season debut doesn’t mean I, or anyone else who called him a bust, has to eat crow. Not yet anyway. I hope he proves me wrong, it’ll be a great problem to have with all the Islanders prospects that’ll be ready for full-time roles next year.

Let’s see if Dal Colle can put it together at the NHL level. This is a great opportunity for him, he can show that he belongs and force the Islanders hand into making a move of some sort to keep him up here when the team gets healthy.