NY Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech is authoring a vintage bounce back season

For the first time in a few seasons, Adam Pelech looks unmistakably like Adam Pelech again — and for the New York Islanders, that may be one of the most important developments of the year.

After years of injuries and uneven stretches that led fans to openly question how his eight-year extension was aging, Pelech is authoring a full-scale bounce-back season. The version Islanders fans worried might be gone has returned: calm, physical, positionally elite, and once again trusted to shut games down.

Pelech has always carried top-four responsibility, even while playing through pain or struggling to find rhythm. This season, though, the results finally match the workload. Averaging roughly 20:30 of ice time per game, the 31-year-old has reclaimed his role as a true shutdown defenseman, regularly drawing the hardest matchups and erasing offensive chances before they ever develop.

One advanced defensive model goes even further, ranking Pelech as the best five-on-five defenseman in the NHL based on chance suppression and defensive impact. That tracks with the eye test. Opposing forwards aren’t generating clean looks when Pelech is on the ice, and the Islanders are far more composed defensively with him anchoring a pair.

The offense hasn’t followed — and that’s perfectly fine. Pelech has just one goal and three assists, but no one in the organization is asking him to drive scoring. The Islanders will gladly trade points for reliability, structure, and a defenseman who consistently kills plays before they turn dangerous.

Perhaps most importantly, this season validates the belief former general manager Lou Lamoriello had when he handed Pelech that long-term deal with movement protection. The player Lamoriello paid for is still very much here.

Health remains the key variable. If Pelech can stay on the ice, there’s every reason to believe he can maintain this level — and keep justifying that contract — well into the later years of the deal. For the Islanders, his resurgence has quietly stabilized the entire blue line.