Islanders: Anders Lee’s Goal Total Should Rise In 2020-2021

It was a slow year for Anders Lee in 2020. That should change this year as the Islanders captain shooting percentage is likely to rise.

20 goals in 68 games is a tad on the low side for Anders Lee. The New York Islanders are paying him to score goals but unfortunately, with a pace of 24 goals over a full season he wasn’t producing to expectations.

Luckily, in the playoffs, the goal-scoring returned for Lee. He ended up with seven goals in 22 games played for the Isles and really came to life in the Capitals and Flyers series in particular.

So why did Lee’s goal total go down? Is he washed already? No, he was just extremely unlucky last year.

Anders Lee generated 195 shots, which was just nine less than his total for last season. He was on pace to set a career-high in shot attempts, he was still getting his opportunities that wasn’t the issue. The issue was an outlier shooting percentage.

He shot at just 10.3 percent which is his lowest since the 2015-2016 season. For the three years prior to last year, he averaged 16.9 percent and his career average is 13.8 percent. If he shot at his career average, he would’ve finished with 27 goals in 68 games or a pace of 33 over a full season. That’s more like it.

Also, look at the power-play production. Lee shot at just 7.14 percent on the man advantage for two power-play goals. His career average before this year was 18.16 percent. That’s way below his expected production.

With his 28 shots he generated. 18.16 percent would’ve yielded five power play goals. That’s an extra three to his total right there without changing anything else at five-on-five.

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So no, Anders Lee isn’t breaking down rapidly like Milan Lucic. He just had a season of awful luck. Next year, if he can get back to 14 percent he should be more than fine production-wise for the Islanders going forward.