NY Islanders center duo ranked below average, but one key detail was missing

The New York Islanders weren't expected to rank among the NHL's elite center groups.

But did they really deserve to be labeled below average?

That was the conclusion reached by The Athletic's Harman Dayal, who placed the Islanders in Tier 6, a designation reserved for below-average top-six center duos. The ranking centered on Bo Horvat and Brayden Schenn, but there's one problem with that projection.

It's wrong.

It doesn't appear to reflect how the Islanders actually plan to line up. New head coach Pete DeBoer has already indicated he envisions Mathew Barzal returning to his natural position at center after spending much of the last two seasons on the wing. If Barzal is indeed the Islanders' second-line center, as DeBoer has suggested, then the foundation of the ranking changes considerably.

Dayal praised Horvat as a dependable two-way center but questioned whether he has true No. 1 center upside. "Horvat is a low-end 1C," Dayal wrote. "He's a terrific all-around player with top-notch goal-scoring ability, size, elite faceoffs, and reliable defensive play, but he's produced at a 65-points-per-82-games pace over the last three years, which simply isn't star-caliber."

The bigger issue came with the second center spot. Dayal projected Schenn as the No. 2 center, noting that the 35-year-old scored just 39 points last season and is better suited to a third-line role at this stage of his career. That assessment is fair, if Schenn is actually centering the second line.

A top two of Horvat and Barzal presents a much different picture than Horvat and Schenn.

No, the Islanders still wouldn't belong in the same conversation as Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl or Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson.

But calling Horvat and Barzal a below-average center duo feels equally difficult to justify. That combination, if they remain healthy, looks much closer to an above-average NHL center group than one sitting near the bottom of the league rankings, with a chance to be better than that.

Maybe there can be a correction?

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