What's the deal with Jonathan Drouin?

When Islander general manager Mathieu Darche signed veteran forward Jonathan Drouin to a two year contract worth four million dollars annually on July 1, 2025, the Islanders were solidifying their middle six forward group as well as bringing in a player known to contribute on the power play. Additionally, Drouin had experience playing up the middle which opened up endless line combinations for the Islanders.

To begin the season, Isles bench boss dispatched Drouin on the wing of his former Canadian World Juniors linemate Bo Horvat. In his first 17 games in the blue and orange, Drouin tallied three goals and 11 assists playing a key role in the promising start to the season. Since November 16th, Jonathan Drouin has just six assists and is goalless while averaging consistent middle six and power play time. He is shooting 4.8% on the season which is by far his career worst not to mention is the 10th worst in the NHL of all forwards who have played at least 430 minutes this season. The lack of his offensive production and a season ending injury to Kyle Palmieri forced Mathieu Darche to acquire veteran winger Ondrej Palat from the New Jersey Devils as a need for NHL wingers was evident. In the Islanders final five games heading into the Olympic break, Jonathan Drouin registered a -4 +/- with no points. The Isles were 4-1 over that stretch. Almost a dificult thing to do when a team is winning hockey game.

So, it is pretty evident that Jonathan Drouin and the Islanders are not working out the way both sides have envisioned it. Both Patrick Roy and Jonathan Drouin have admittedly come to terms with this but there's many ways to work through it. Not yet this season has Patrick Roy healthy scratched Jonathan Drouin meanwhile fellow Frenchmen Anthony Duclair who has produced nine more goals in similar ice time, has been scratched four times already this year. Patrick Roy has acknowledged Drouin's ability to defend as a plus to his game and utilizes him more often in critical game moments than Anthony Duclair.

In two of the three games before the break, Drouin played under 15 minutes which is well less then his 18:39 average ice time in the month of November. Patrick Roy is minimizing his minutes and with the emergence of youngster Cal Ritchie taking up more top six minutes and succeeding will only hurt Drouin's share. It seems that the end of the road could potentially be soon for Drouin on Long Island.

Drouin, 30, has a 16 team no trade list and a four million dollar cap hit due next season but with the proper asset tooling, it wouln't be out of question for Mathieu Darche to trade a player he's rather familiar with. It doesn't appear this is the direction the Islanders want to go in at least during the remainer of this season. The Islander brass still believes in Drouin and believe his veteran flexibility is a valuable tool, as it is. The Islanders really do want to make things work with Drouin and there is belief.

But, with a team looking to make a playoff run it is imperative to ice the best lineup every night. The question for Patrick Roy is Jonathan Drouin one of his best available 12 forwards? If he is then he should be in the lineup after the Olympic Break hoping for a sizzling second half, if not general manager Mathieu Darche should look to move him in a veteran swap type of deal before March 6th's trading deadline.

In his short tenure as Isles GM, Mathieu Darche has shown absolute zero reluctancy to make moves when he deems a need, like firing goalie coach Piero Greco six games into the season after a poor start from Ilya Sorokin or the Carson Soucy and Ondrej Palat trades just two weeks ago. Will he cut ties before the deadline with his former Lightning now made Islander, Drouin, or will he ride out the veteran that he still believes in? Both Mathieu Darche and Jonathan Drouin each have 2.5 weeks to evaluate themselves.