The New York Islanders Need to Give Victor Eklund a Real Shot at the Opening Night Roster

It is less than a month until October 3rd, when the New York Islanders will play their home opener against the New Jersey Devils. It will also be an important day for Victor Eklund, who will turn 20 years young. Whether he will spend that birthday at UBS Arena or in Hamilton with the Hammers for their inaugural season will depend on how things go at training camp in the coming weeks.

Head coach Peter DeBoer will have plenty of forwards to choose from for the opening-night roster, but most of those forwards fighting for the third and fourth lines are veteran depth pieces. With the amount of depth options from DeBoer, does Eklund have a fair shot at the lineup?

Ideally, a prospect like Eklund would want a top-six role to slide in with the other skill players, but that is not always possible for a veteran squad looking to make the playoffs. The 16th overall pick in the NHL Draft can play a complete game with some snarl despite his lack of size, so any role can work in the short-term.

Although the Islanders have skill on the top lines, those players are not good enough to be locked into that role for the entire season, other than Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal. The offense, and more specifically, the man advantage, could always use more skill.

As far as the depth role goes for Eklund, he will be battling against some highly paid, aging veterans like Ondrej Palat, Pierre Engvall, and Anthony Duclair. The combined salary cap hit this season for those three players alone is $12.5 million. General manager Mathieu Darche may want to squeeze the last hockey from those players to make them worth the money owed.

Outside of those high-priced players, Casey Cizikas has had a role on the fourth line for the last decade and still provides a productive role. Kyle MacLean has been a spark plug that gained the trust of former head coach Patrick Roy.

It appears to be a tall task for Eklund, having just one NHL game under his belt, but I do believe he would provide a spark and uniqueness to this team, similar to, but not to the level of Matthew Schaefer. It may have to take a stellar camp just to be considered, but either way, the future is bright for Eklund.

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