Injuries derailed New York Islanders 2024-25 season

Injuries derailed what could have been a promising 2024-25 season for the New York Islanders. This article isn’t about making excuses for the Isles’ failure to make the Stanley Cup playoffs. Rather, it’s an exercise in performing an autopsy into a lost season.

When looking back at the ridiculous number of injuries befalling the Isles, it’s easy to think “What if.”

What if Mathew Barzal had played a full season?

What if Anthony Duclair hadn’t gone down early in the season?

What if Semyon Varlamov had backed up Ilya Sorokin?

The list goes on and on…

The fact is that Patrick Roy aged considerably before our eyes as the Islanders tried to make do with the lineup they had. Lou Lamoriello went through the scrap heap, successfully I might add, looking for talent without breaking the bank.

Adam Boqvist was a nice addition. Scott Perunovich came through in a pinch. However, the forward group did not get the boost it needed to recover from injuries. The solutions Lamoriello came up with were deploying Boqvist as a forward and letting Matt Martin play a regular role down the stretch.

This situation is a cautionary tale for next season as depth will become a major issue. The Islanders will need another center to replace Brock Nelson, and likely another top-six winger to fill in for Kyle Palmieri.

That situation means this summer will be a mix of focusing on young talent making the team in the fall (Calum Ritchie, Isaiah George, Cole Eiserman, Marc Gatcomb) but also adding proven talent to give the team a chance to be competitive.

That won’t be an easy task, but it’s something that will likely take up much of Lamoriello’s brain power this summer.

Would the New York Islanders have been a playoff team if not for injuries?

 It’s tough to ascertain if the New York Islanders would have made the Stanley Cup playoffs if not for the insane amount of injuries. But if we go down that rabbit hole, there’s plenty of reason to believe the Islanders would be getting ready for Game 1 instead of staring at a summer of questions.

A healthy Barzal would have supported Bo Horvat all season long. Barzal would have likely turned the tide in more than one game. Similarly, a healthy Anthony Duclair might not have sunk like he did.

Then, there’s the blue line. Mike Rielly’s absence left a gap in the bottom pairing. Alexander Romanov, Adam Pelech, and Ryan Pulock all missed time this season. Noah Dobson went down for a brief period, leaving the Islanders scrambling for answers.

As for goaltending, having a healthy Semyon Varlamov would have avoided the debacle with saw with Marcus Hogberg and the disaster of inserting Tristan Lennox unprepared.

In my estimation, a healthy Islanders lineup would have bred the consistency that Patrick Roy wanted to build. Perhaps the grueling training cap in September predisposed some players for injuries.

That’s speculation on my part.

Perhaps conditioning became an issue for the team. Maybe it was just bad luck. Unless we have a time machine that can travel to an alternate universe in which the Islanders were not ravaged by injuries, we can’t be fully certain that the Islanders would have made the playoffs this season if not for some many injuries.