Disastrous Decembers comes to an end for NY Islanders center Brock Nelson

There are a lot of eyes on New York Islanders' second-line center, Brock Nelson, right now. The 33-year-old is expected to be among the most coveted targets at the March trade deadline as he plays the final year of the six-year contract extension he signed before the start of the 2019-20 season.

Nelson, who has led the Islanders in scoring each of the previous five seasons, has been a consistent and reliable offensive force for a team that often struggles to score goals. That's why his performance during December was so surprising and adversely impactful. GM Lou Lamoriello is desperately giving head coach Patrick Roy and this roster every opportunity to avoid a sell-off at the trade deadline, but after going 5-7-1 in December and currently three games under .500 for the first time in three seasons, that is increasingly looking unlikely.

Nelson has only 10 goals through 38 games this season after going scoreless for the month of December, a month where he only generated 18 shots on goal per statistician Eric Hornick. Beat writer Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News posted that it was the first time Nelson had gone scoreless in a month since April 2018, when the team only played three regular season games. In 2013-14, which was his rookie year, he also went scoreless in December and February.

Is the trade speculation impacting him, or is this simply a scoring slump? It's hard to say for sure, but Nelson is in a different situation this season than in previous years when his name was floated as the team struggled throughout the first half of the season. When pressed on the subject, Nelson said all the cliche right things about focusing on what he can control, but he said that he had at least spoken to Lamoriello about his contract.

Looking ahead at the coming weeks and months, Nelson's performance can lift or drag the team's overall performance. There's no conceivable way the Islanders can dig themselves out of this hole without the former All-Star catching fire and starting to pile up the goals the way we've grown accustomed to in recent seasons. From that perspective, Nelson, who will represent Team USA in the Four Nations Face-off, will be a main factor in how the decision-making unfolds this season.