Islanders all-time dream team for game 7 of Stanley Cup Final

You can assemble a New York Islanders roster to win game 7 of a Stanley Cup final. You can pick from all eras of Islanders history. Who makes your team?

During the break, I’m seeing Sportsnet run a number of all-time Stanley Cup Final dream team pieces. Like this one for the Vancouver Cancucks. Or this one for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Seeing as how Sportsnet is Canadian based they don’t have anyone covering the New York Islanders, I decided to make one.

I’ll keep the rules the same. You can’t just name a team full of top tier talent in every position. Players have to play the positions their skill would typically have them play. For example: If I can’t find a spot for a top-six player in the top six I can’t list him on the fourth line.

Also, it’s not era-specific so I can mix players from the golden era of the late ’70s and early ’80s with modern players or players from when times weren’t that great.

Forwards

First Line: Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and Mike Bossy

Why mess with success? I tinkered with the idea of replacing Clark Gillies with John Tonelli simply because Tonelli was more productive on a points-per-game basis than Gillies was.

But then I considered that Al Arbour kept the Trio Grande together in real life, so why would I mess it up in my hypothetical world?

The trio combined for an incredible 3,142 regular season and 422 playoff points over their NHL careers. When it comes to playoff production for forwards in Islanders history it goes Trottier (1), Bossy (2), and Gillies (3). There’s no justifiable reason to separate them. So together they stay.

Second Line: John Tonelli, John Tavares, and Ziggy Palffy

Here’s where I start to mess with eras and rightfully so. John Tavares is the second-leading scoring center in New York Islanders history behind none other than Bryan Trottier. He was never a second-line center for the Isles but he fits the bill perfectly.

Tavares isn’t a super-start player, like Trottier, but he’s clearly a second-tier star. A Trottier-Tavares combo down the middle would act much like the Sidney Crosby-Evgeny Malkin combo for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

John Tonelli makes sense on the left of line two as does Ziggy Palffy on the right. I thought about putting Kyle Okposo here because of his chemistry with John Tavares but Palffy was too good to keep off this list.

Palffy put up an incredible 331 points in 331 games for the Isles. On terrible teams, Palffy still put up two 87 point seasons and a 90 point campaign where he scored 48 goals.

Third Line: David Volek, Butch Goring, and Josh Bailey

This is a useful line of middle-six players that are great on and off the puck. Goring is tied for second in shorthanded goals in Islanders history with 18. If this team takes a penalty Butch is the first player over the boards.

David Volek on the left and Josh Bailey on the right complete the line with depth scoring.

Fourth Line: Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas, and Cal Clutterbuck

They’re the best fourth line in hockey, why try and shoehorn another set of players to replace what clearly works?

Defense

I kept a right-left balance going on all three pairs.

First pair: Denis Potvin and Ken Morrow

Just like with the first line I didn’t mess with greatness. These two played together so I kept them together.

Second Pair: Mark Streit, Johnny Boychuk

I thought this pair not only respected the left-right setup but they also form a great complimentary unit with Streit being the more offensive player of the two.

I thought of putting Persson here, but Streit was more productive in a points-per-game ratio with 0.63 to Persson’s 0.59 points-per-game.

Boychuk is third in points for right-handed blueliners in Islanders history and is a great defense-first blueliner.

Third Pair: Stefan Persson and Travis Hamonic

Persson is behind only Denis Potvin for points by a defenseman in New York Islanders history. I know he primarily played on the team’s second pair but the way minutes are given out on the blue line you can effectively have two-second units and that’s what I decided to go with.

Hamonic rounds out the pair nicely as the more defense-first guy.

Goalies

Starter: Billy Smith

Just based on wins alone Billy Smith towers over the field of Islanders goalies with 304 regular-season wins. Chico Resch is second with 147 fewer wins.

In 126 playoff starts, Billy Smith holds 88 wins. Again, next is Chico Resch with 17. That’s a wild gap. Even if you pro-rate for wins per start Smith sits at 0.7 wins-per-start. Second is Resch with a 0.5 wins-per-start.

No goalie was better consistently better in the regular season or the playoffs for the Islanders than Smith

Backup: Jaroslav Halak

Halak was a good goalie for the Isles in the regular season and in the playoffs. In seven playoff starts, Halak averaged a 2.30GAA and 0.926 SV% average.

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Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Al Arbour

Assistant coaches: Barry Trotz, Peter Laviolette

I doubt there will be any push back with this coaching staff. Arbour was an absolute legend as a player and coach. With Trotz and Laviolette on his bench, this team can easily pull out a win in game seven.