Stefen Rosner
There were a handful of reasons as to why New York Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello relieved Barry Trotz of his head coaching duties following the 2021-22 season. “What we have to do is get some improvement out of our younger players,” is something that Lamoriello said during his press conference, which alludes to that being something he believed Trotz did not do well enough.
The “younger” players that Lamoriello is referring to is Oliver Wahlstrom and Kieffer Bellows, whose leashes were rather short, even when the Islanders were in the midst of a lost season.
Oliver Wahlstrom, who turned 22 on Monday, notched 13 goals with 11 assists in 12:04 ATOI over 73 games played. He struggled mightily to adapt and play the two-way game that Trotz demanded, leading to not just watching from the stands but often sitting on the bench for at times a full period.
It was a year of regression for Wahlstrom, as his 12 goals in 49 games (12:23 ATOI) back in 2020-21 raised the roof on his potential production.
Wahlstrom did struggle in 2021-22 and quite frankly his lack of minutes was often his doing. He was sloppy with his decision-making and was irresponsible on defense. Sometimes watching is the best medicine. Other times being thrown into the water and figuring out how to swim is the way to go, especially in a year where the Islanders were not going anywhere.
On the other hand, Kieffer Bellows struggled in his own right but unlike Wahlstrom, finished his season playing the best hockey we had seen from him at the NHL level. Although he had just six goals and 13 assists in 45 games played while averaging 11:52 TOI, he showcased an ability to not just be a one-dimensional player.
And towards the end of the season, Bellows playing every night paid off in his favor.
If you had been watching the New York Rangers at all this past season, as well as their run which ended in six games to the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightnings, youth played a major role. And yes, I am quite aware that superstar netminder Igor Shesterkin was the biggest reason for their run and that they would have been a borderline playoff team, potentially even missing the playoffs, if he was not their backstop.
But one thing New York Rangers head coach Gerrard Gallant (until Game 6) did was trust his youngsters, even when the production was not there. It was a major turnaround from when David Quinn was behind the Rangers bench, as despite being a collegiate coach for years, buried his youngsters in the lineup and did not allow for them to flourish.
2020 first overall pick Alexis Lafreniere scored 19 goals and added 12 assists in 79 games played during the regular season while averaging 14 minutes per night. The 20-year-old only had five goals in his first 20 games and at the halfway point (41 games) only had eight goals.
Gallant did not cut his ice time or bench him. He just let him figure it out instead as the Rangers continued to win games.
Over the remaining 41 games, Lafreniere notched 11 goals and in 20 postseason games scored two goals with seven assists while averaging 14:00 TOI. Again, the production was not there, but the minutes remained the same–the leash was not pulled tighter.
21-year-old Kaapo Kakko, the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, had a season like Wahlstrom. The production during the regular season, with seven goals and 11 assists in 43 games played, was a step back for the young forward, but unlike Wahlstrom, Kakko’s ATOI actually rose from 14:21 to 15:27 a night.
In 19 postseason games, as he was a healthy scratch for Game 6 because Gallant “wanted to dress the best lineup”, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post, Kakko scored twice with just three assists. He averaged 12:02 minutes per game, a three-minute drop in playing time from the regular season.
22-year-old Fillip Chytil only played in 67 regular-season games due to a lower-body injury, with eight goals and 14 assists in 13:11 ATOI. He had the exact same stat line in 42 games in the 2020-21 season, with just a few seconds more of ice time. In 20 postseason games, Chytil shined with seven goals and eight assists in 13:24 ATOI.
Now it’s easy to extend leashes when the team is winning games. The New York Rangers, again despite their issues, finished the 2021-22 campaign second in the tough Metropolitan Division. There was room to let youngsters grow, unlike on the island as the New York Islanders “needed” every two points they could get.
Despite the streakiness of the Islanders and their proven ability to collect wins and points and go on impressive streaks, the Islanders shattering loss, a 3-0 defeat to the Seattle Kraken on Feb. 2 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
At that point, the Islanders season should have been about development. It should have been about letting the younger players experience the struggles and work through them. It was not as if the Islanders veterans were playing lights out and that they deserved more minutes on a nightly basis.
