Islanders: Three Potential Solutions for Anders Lee’s Extended Absence

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Oliver Wahlstrom #26 of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

New York Islanders captain Anders Lee is out indefinitely. That leaves a big absence on the Islanders top line, so what now?

New York Islanders captain Anders Lee is out indefinitely, and that obviously leaves a gaping hole in the lineup. Barry Trotz has several approaches he could take to plugging the gap left by Lee’s absence, so let’s break each of those options down.

1. Replacing from Within: Plugging in a Shooter on the Islanders Top Line

One of the three approaches to replacing Lee that I’ll discuss here is to not attempt to replace his skillset, but to plug in a shooter on the top line instead. I said it in my three takeaways from Thursday’s game, Lee’s game is simple, but he executes it like a maestro when he’s playing well.

I don’t know how many players in the entire league fulfill the duties of the net-front presence and finisher as effectively as Lee does when he’s on his game. By that logic, trying to replace Lee’s skill set as a big body seems like a less optimal approach than simply plugging a shooter into his place on the Islanders top line.

Who replaces Lee is a heated debate right now, but what's guaranteed is that line can't play the same way anymore.

You won't find another Anders Lee out there.#Isles
— Michel Anderson (@TLOMitch) March 12, 2021

This is the approach I’ve seen most Islanders fans on Twitter take a liking to, and for the reasons I laid out above, I think I like this one most as well. Unfortunately, the Islanders don’t have a glut of shooting talent available to pick from when trying this approach out. But there is this kid named Oliver Wahlstrom everyone seems to like.

The book on Wahlstrom since before his draft season has been that he has a fantastic shot. We’ve seen that shot translate well to the pro level in 2020-21, and as a result, he’s been able to score goals, both at 5v5 and on the power-play, that outpaces his xG, or Expected Goals, metrics.

There are a lot of ways to interpret a player shooting above his xG. But, with the way the puck just flies off Wahlstrom’s stick, I’d be willing to bet that a lot of his success here has come from just being a good shooter.

Wahlstrom has played on J.G. Pageau’s wing all season, and while Pageau is very good, he isn’t one of the best offensive play-drivers the Islanders have, thus limiting the amount of really good looks Wahlstrom has gotten in the O-zone.

Could Wahlstrom’s dangerous release playing alongside Mathew Barzal, the undisputed best play-driving forward the Islanders have, be enough to replace Lee? It won’t replace the physical presence Lee has in front of the net, that’s for sure, but we’ve already established that isn’t what we’re going for with this option.

I think Barzal and Jordan Eberle’s ability to drive play well and generate dangerous scoring chances, mixed with Wahlstrom’s shot and smart on-the-puck decision-making, could make for a dynamic and dangerous scoring line that won’t replace Lee, but certainly could replace some of the overall line’s production.

Michael Dal Colle #28 of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

2. Replacing from Within: Trying to Replace Lee’s Skillset

While plugging in a shooter like Wahlstrom could be a net positive, it’s also possible that Barry Trotz opts not to fundamentally change the way his top line plays immediately. In this scenario, Trotz would probably be looking not to replace the goal-scoring production Lee brought to the top line, but that big body net-front presence instead.

In the event that this is the direction Trotz chooses to go, the Islanders have a number of players with a similar build to Lee’s who could serve as a hindrance to goalie vision and redirect pucks on net.

I am not super fond of this course of action, because like I said in the last slide, I don’t know of any current NHL’er who does what Lee does, as well as Lee does it.

Forget the Islanders roster, I’m talking the entire NHL. That’s well over 700 players, and I can’t name one who plays Lee’s game as well as the Islanders captain can. Lee is imposingly strong, has the hands to redirect pucks well and stickhandle in tight spaces around the crease, possesses an under-appreciated shot, and forechecks and retrieves pucks very well for a player with below-average skating.

While Michael Dal Colle, who in my opinion has played his role well for this Islanders team during 2020-21, could be big and strong enough to park in front of the crease, I and others think he lacks the hands to create offense from that location. His offensive vision has also made some improvement, but it too is lacking what it would take to fill the void Lee leaves behind.

Kieffer Bellows is another option here. Bellows has shown a willingness to play bump-and-grind hockey in every appearance we’ve seen from him thus far, so it only makes sense he’d probably be willing to get dirty in front of the net. But, like Dal Colle, I haven’t seen the hands or offensive IQ that it would take for Bellows to play that role with any consistency.

Plus, due to some defensive missteps, Bellows seemed to be in Barry Trotz’s doghouse after his last appearance, so I’m not banking on him returning to the lineup anytime soon. Especially not with top-line minutes being doled out to him.

There are a number of options to plug in as a net-front presence on the top line’s left-wing. I’m not really super high on any of them, though, and for that reason, I feel this shouldn’t be Barry’s first option when considering how to replace Lee.

General Manager Lou Lamoriello of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

3. Replacing from the Outside: Finding a Rental to Replace Lee

I’m not very high on this idea either, but if need be, the Islanders and General Manager Lou Lamoriello could go hunting on the trade market for a short-term Lee replacement. The problem here is, well, there several very obvious problems with this plan of action.

The first would be the NHL’s trade market during the 2020-21 season has been pretty barren. Yeah, we saw Patrik Laine and Pierre-Luc Dubois switch teams earlier this year, but both those players were disgruntled and wanted out of their current situations.

But, the marriage between Laine and Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella appears to be aging like milk left in the sun. (Who coulda seen that coming, am I right?) Laine is in the final season of his two-year, $6.750 million contract, so he would be a rental, which is not very enticing either. Plus, he’s repeatedly shown a distaste for playing defense. So, yeah, that’s not gonna fly on Long Island with Barry Trotz behind the bench. Next.

Taylor Hall signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Sabres over the summer, and Buffalo is terrible right now, as Islanders fans got to see first-hand in last week’s three games against them. So, it stands to reason that Buffalo may be looking to move Hall before the April 12 NHL trade deadline.

The problem here again is that Hall is a rental, and I don’t like the idea of the Islanders giving up picks and prospects for half a season of Taylor Hall, who has been as snake-bitten a player as any in the NHL in 2020-21. Next.

The Nashville Predators stink, and as such may be looking to tear things down and go into a rebuild. Filip Forsberg has one more year left on his $6 million AAV contract, so that’s better than a rental as far as I’m concerned. Forsberg drives play in both ends of the rink, can finish scoring chances, and plays with and against top competition for the Predators. He’d be my pick if this is the route the Islanders choose to go down.

Now for the other problems: one of which is that the Islanders will have to find ways to clear cap space for these moves. Putting Lee on LTIR, should he need it, is one way of doing that, but what happens when the captain returns? Sounds messy to me, and the Islanders already have enough of a salary cap mess on their hands as is.

Then, there’s the obvious question of who goes the other way in a trade? The Islanders do not have a deep prospect pool, and what prospects they do have would not suffice in trading for any one of these players.

I’ve seen some ideas from fans on Twitter about who the Islanders could send back in a trade. But sorry, Kieffer Bellows and a first-round pick sounds like a quick way to get Buffalo and Columbus to hang up the phone, even with their players being pending free agents. Predators GM David Poile would probably laugh Lou out of the building if that were the Islanders offer for Forsberg too.

I just don’t see a way to get a trade done for the Islanders. Not one that brings in a Lee-level player, or close to it at least. You’d have to give up too much going the other way for a poor-fitting rental if the Islanders even have the assets available to do it, or the team would be further hamstrung by the salary cap for anything more than an expiring contract.

The goal for the Islanders is to win now. Win the Stanley Cup in 2020-21, because cap problems and core players aging out of their primes are issues on the horizon, but this is not how you do it, in my opinion.

Replacing Lee will be important, and near-impossible to do fully, but I’m sticking with replacement from within and looking for a cheaper trade option for the bottom-six. Not swinging for the fences on the trade market.

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