Islanders: Is Barry Trotz Doing the Right Thing With Kyle Palmieri?

Kyle Palmieri has had a hell of a rough time during his first full year with the New York Islanders. In 29 games with New York, he has just seven points (1 goal, 6 assists). Going back to last year after the trade that's three goals in 46 games since joining the Islanders. Just an insanely low number based on where he was before coming here.

From 2016 through 2020, Palmieri had 30, 26, 24, 27 and 25 goals to his name. For whatever reason, the last two years have been downright infuriating for him in the goal scoring department.

The irony of it all, in the playoffs for New York he had seven in just 19 games. It was a good run but he has crashed back down to earth since reupping to stay here.

It appears like, based on practice today, that Kyle Palmieri will once again be kept out of the lineup on Tuesday.

If that's the case, that would be four straight games that he will be out of the lineup. One of those he was on paternity leave but the last three he's been available and Barry Trotz has elected to run a different forward instead of Palmieri.

I mean, that's a very scary sign but I don't care that Palm's is being scratched. Now maybe I should preface and say that I would prefer Kieffer Bellows getting the nod over Ross Johnston but one goal in 29 games isn't going to cut it.

I don't care about the underlying numbers, Palmieri was brought in here to score 25 goals and play on the top line with Mat Barzal and Anders Lee. He's been a non factor for the entirety of the year, so no I can't say that I have any issue with Palmieri sitting down.

Islanders fans wanted the same energy for veterans and now you have it. Palmieri hasn't been good enough and while he eventually will have to go out of the lineup, perhaps this is Barry's only card that he can play to get him going.