NY Islanders prospect William Dufour showing consistency in Bridgeport

A lot of the attention right now has been turned towards NY Islanders prospect Aatu Räty. And deservedly so as he's made a pretty decent impact since receiving the recall to the varsity Islanders squad. However, Räty isn't the only Islanders younin making an impact as his Bridgeport teammate, William Dufour, is showing promise with the AHL Islanders.

The 2021-22 season was one to remember for Dufour. He broke record after record and seemingly couldn't stay out of the news for some accomplishment whether personal or with one of his teams. His incredible season last year earned him a three-year entry-level contract with the Islanders last summer. He arrived at the Islanders' training camp and certainly left an impression before ultimately

Dufour is the fourth-leading scorer on the AHL Islanders with 20 points through 31 games (Ruslan Iskhakov and Samuel Bolduc ranked third tied with 23 points each. He's scored 11 goals and nine assists, but the month of December is when he really turned things up.

Dufour's November wasn't great, so much so that Bridgeport head coach Brent Thompson felt the need to sit him with the purpose of allowing him to observe and learn.

“We want him to be able to play a solid 200-foot game, and we had some really good conversations, and he’s getting his opportunity to play this weekend for sure,” Thompson told NYI Hockey Now about Dufour back on Nov. 18

Whatever Dufour learned while observing, it worked. Since the beginning of December, Dufour has been stellar scoring four goals and five assists in his last 13 games. He put together two multi-point efforts in that span and is currently riding a four-game point streak.

Dufour's bread and butter is his shot, and it's been on full display in Bridgeport. The 20-year-old rookie is the Jr. Islanders second-leading goal scorer to veteran Andy Andreoff (17) with 11 total goals on the season.

Over a 72-game span (a full AHL season), Dufour is on pace to score 25.5 goals and 46 points. Pluck Dufour and place him in the AHL's 2021-22 season, Dufour's point total would make him a top-75 player, ranked 62nd overall as a rookie.

The former fifth round pick in 2020 has certainly made leaps and bounds since his draft year and it's just a matter of time before we see him scoring in the NHL.