Islanders 21-22 report card: Anders Lee finds his groove

New York Islanders captain Anders Lee was back from an injury that saw him miss most of the 20-21 season and the entirety of the Isles playoff run. How long would it take him to get back to form after such a setback was the big question this year?

It took him some time, but when he got going we got the ol' Anders Lee back.

This is a continuation of the player level report cards that I started this offseason:
-Josh Bailey
-Mathew Barzal
-Anthony Beauvillier
-Kieffer Bellows
-Casey Cizikas
-Cal Clutterbuck
-New York Islanders (Team Level Report Card)

New York Islanders 21-22 report card: Anders Lee finds his groove

Offense: A
Through 76 games Lee put up 28 goals and 46 points. A pace of 30 goals and 50 points over a full 82-game season. That's the Lee we know. To be fair, that's the Lee we were getting in 20-21, but that season was cut short because of that injury.

It took a while for Lee to get up and running this year. Lee scored half his goals in the final 30 games of his season. While clearly healthy enough to play, the injury was still seemingly affecting Lee's play for a while this year.

The Islanders offense desperately needs an Anders Lee to hover around 30 goals on the year to be successful. Lee did his job, even if it took a bit to get there. But you can't really blame him for that. Not only is he dealing with the issues everyone else is dealing with (13-game road trip, COVID, etc), but he's doing that while rehabbing a serious injury. A- for Lee.

Defense: F
Lee had the absolute worst relative 5on5 xGA per 60 on the team at 0.45. Meaning, when he was on the ice at 5on5, opponents got an extra 0.45 xGA against the Isles compared to the rest of Lee's teammates. That's not ideal.

Lee was never a supreme defender, but with the amount of work he had to do in the D-zone during the Trotz era his weakness was exposed.

Impact vs. Reliance: B+
When it comes to ice-time, Lee finished sixth for forwards with an average of 16:37 worth of ice time. In terms of impact, Lee was fifth with a 0.48 average game score. Take out Austin Czarnik's team-leading 0.73 average game score (on eleven games), and Lee is fourth.

Excellent. Lee's impact outperforms his reliance. And the Isles relied on Lee a lot. Only five forwards had more total ice time than he did. Three of those guys were centers and the two wingers were ahead of him by seconds (Bailey average +16 seconds and Beau +12 seconds). I'm giving Lee a B+ here.

Final grade: C+
It was a good year from Lee the C+ is maybe not as high as I'd expect it but it's perfectly reasonable considering the year he had. I look forward to seeing what he can do next year.