Islanders: JG Pageau Shines In The Playoffs

Often times you hear the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”. While I understand the thought process of the figure of speech, it comes off as belittling when talking about someone who genuinely has many strengths.

The personification of “Jack of all trades” for the New Yor Islanders is JG Pageau. Barry Trotz, and Lou Lamoriello too for that matter, love Pageau and it’s easy to see why.

He can thrive in any role he’s put in. Generally, he’s a third-line center (and arguably the best in the league in that role) but other times he’s been tasked with other roles. Whether it’s centering a second line, playing wing in the top-six, or playing wing on the fourth line he has literally done it all and done it all well.

In 54 games for New York this season, he put up 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists). Paced out over 82 games that’s a 43 point season from a majority third-line center. You can’t ask for much better than that.

While he was solid in the regular season, I’m excited to see him shine in the playoffs. When the stage is the brightest, Pageau is at his best.

In 22 playoff games for the Islanders last year he scored eight goals. In case you want a reminder here’s all eight:

This type of performance wasn’t the first time we saw playoff domination from Pageau. In fact, he’s done it his entire career. In 2016-2017 he had eight goals in 19 games with Ottawa including a four-goal performance against the New York Rangers.

In 57 career playoff games, Pageau has 20 goals! If you were to pace that out, that’s a pace of 29 over a full season. Talk about clutch stuff from JGP.

His game is an impactful one when it comes to being able to do everything. You can have him on the power play or penalty kill and he’s solid at 5v5 but something about when the playoffs come around just does it for him.

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Don’t be surprised if he takes over a round like he did last year. In fact, if he doesn’t that would be much more surprising. Five more years of JGP after this? Yes, please.