New York Islanders: Jordan Eberle Lack of Production

The New York Islanders top-six is struggling mightily. It doesn’t help the cause that Jordan Eberle is having the worst year of his career, production wise.

After a solid first year with the New York Islanders, putting up 59 points alongside Mathew Barzal, Jordan Eberle has taken an immense step back. Through 65 games he has just 30 points, a pace of just 38 points on the year.

With just 13 goals, he likely won’t crack the 20 goal mark for the first time since his rookie year as a 20-year-old, back in 2010-2011 (excluding the lockout season). Lately, he’s been on a stretch run of being invisible.

Over the last 15 games, Jordan Eberle hasn’t recorded a goal and he has just four assists over that span. For context, a 15 game sample size is 18 percent of the NHL season. That’s far too long for someone to go without a goal who should be a staple in your top-six.

You would expect more out of the Martin – Cizikas – Clutterbuck line production wise than what you’re currently getting from Eberle. The Islanders are two points back of first place in this fight in the Metropolitan and can use all the offense they can get right now.

Over the last nine games, they don’t have a power play goal and they’ve scored two goals or less five times. The offense is about as dead as you could possibly be and it’s at the worst possible time.

It’s not only a bad time for the Isles but it’s bad for Eberle too. To make matters worse for Jordan Eberle, he’s on a contract year. Eberle is making $6 million against the cap on his current deal and it would be very difficult to see him getting a raise in a year where he likely doesn’t crack 40 points.

If he doubled down and put up 50 or more points again with 25 goals, he could easily justify a $7 million AAV contract. Sometimes, it’s a matter of when you get hot and when you get ice cold that dictates your value on your next contract.

Perhaps a couple of nights on the scratch pad might do Eberle good. He’s certainly not doing much on the ice offensively at the moment. Or you could try Eberle out with Leo Komarov and Val Filppula and see if that gets him going. It kind of worked for Anthony Beavuillier.

With Eberle struggling, and the top-six as a unit struggling right now, there’s almost no way you could justify staying put at the trade deadline now. Their offense is holding on for dear life, and it takes a masterful Thomas Greiss performance to win hockey games right now.