STUNNING: Islanders Offensive DEPTH Changes Game—Horvat, Barzal & Lee Elevate Franchise Prospects

STUNNING: Islanders Offensive DEPTH Changes Game—Horvat, Barzal & Lee Elevate Franchise Prospects

Today we’re going to discuss a big difference between this year’s Islanders team and last year’s and the impact it’s had on the team. We’ll have that and a whole lot more coming up on today’s Locked On Islanders podcast. You’re Locked On Islanders, your daily podcast on the New York Islanders, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of the Locked On Islanders podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked On Islanders your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. I also want to say thank you to everybody uh because the Locked On podcast network is now the number one sports podcast network and we couldn’t have done that without you. So, thank you so much. I’m Gil Martin. I’ve been covering the New York Islanders for almost two decades and I wrote the book Ice Wars on the history of the Islanders rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 to the modern era. So glad you could join us today to talk a little Islanders hockey. Busy show ahead. We’re going to talk about a major difference between last year’s team and this year’s team and the impact it’s having on the Islanders. We’re going to talk about finding the right balance about an important thing that you, our listeners and viewers, keep asking about as we dip into the mailbag. And we have our weekly farm and prospects report. Lots of news about the Islanders increasingly good prospect pipeline. Let’s start with the big difference between last year’s team and this year’s team, or at least one of them, because there are several. But if I would have told most Islander fans before the season started that the New York Islanders after 16 games have eight players who already have doubledigit points, 10 points or more through 16 games. And that that was the most of any team in the National Hockey League. I I I think most of you would have thought I was crazy. And believe it or not, this is the first time since 198788 that the Islanders have had this many players reach 10 points or more this early in the season. 198788 just to give you an idea Dennis Potban was still playing for the New York Islanders and Ronald Reagan was president of the United States. That’s how long it’s been since the Islanders have been able to do this. And let’s face it, balance is critical in the National Hockey League because you’re not going to get it done with just one line working or two lines working, especially when you’re playing better teams, especially if you do somehow make the playoffs. Having balance matters. It allows your team to score even when you know the opposition puts their top checking line on your best scorers. And look, eight players. Bo Horvat 20 points. Kyle Palmary, Matthew Barzal 13 points. Matthew Schaefer 12. JG Pacio. Andersley, Jonathan Druan 11 points each. and Amil Heineman with 10 points. By the way, Simon Holmstrom has nine points. So, needless to say, they were very very close to adding another player to that list. And that certainly would have been uh you know, a a definite bonus for this team. And you got to give the credit to Matthew Dorch because you’ll notice that two of the players that he acquired and one that he drafted are on this list. Obviously, look, most NHL GMs would have selected Matthew Schaefer with that first overall pick. Most. And yeah, there’s a luck of the draw involved that the Islanders with their three and a half% chance won the draft lottery, but ultimately Schaefer has been sort of a a catalyst to get some of the other players going, but Drew Anne and Heineman have both helped on the power play, have both uh added something more in depth to this lineup. Drew is more of a setup guy. He’s got two goals, nine assists. His passing is one of the reasons that Bo Horvat is off to the fast start. Amil Heinman more of a goal scorer. Six of his 10 points are goals. Both of those players, by the way, plus six at this point. Both of them have had an impact on Bo Horvat as has a healthy Matthew Barzal. And now you’ve got a team with more balance. And a dayers may recall, we’ve talked about the Islanders right now have three solid lines. The fourth line has kind of been a problem, but you’ve got three lines on this team that are capable of scoring on any given night and and contributing. Horvatine, Pal, Mary, Barzal, Druan, Holmstrom, Pacio, Lee, Duclair. Think about it. That third line, Pacio has a 20goal season. Lee has 30 goal seasons on his resume. Duclair has a 30goal season on his resume. That’s your third line. This team suddenly is capable of a lot more offense. And we see the difference in the numbers early on. Last year, the Islanders were 27th, 28th in the league in goals scored. Right now they’re 12th. They are 12th in the league. That is cutting, you know, the the difference is about 15 spots. Half the league. You’re improving at this point by half the league. That’s impressive. So kudos to Matthew Dar for bringing in some guys who have helped in the short run. And obviously a little draft luck never hurts, but all of a sudden it’s a lot harder to play against the New York Islanders if you’re an opposing team. And let’s face it, Drew adds speed. Certainly Schaefer has added speed. A healthy Barzal and a healthy Duclair adds speed. Getting this team to be faster. What was our mantra last year? Every day will remember. Younger, faster, more skilled. Schaefer, Heinaman, they make you younger. Druan, Heinaman, Schaefer, all add more skill and and and speed. You’ve got speed. So, all of a sudden, this team is more entertaining to watch, which is great for the fans, and they can put the puck in the net. out. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still issues to work out, but having balanced scoring is a major difference for the New York Islanders. And hopefully hopefully it continues as the season goes on. Health is always an issue. I mean, last year so many players missed significant time and so far this year, knockwood, they’ve been fortunate. Yeah, guys have missed games here and there. Not going to say they haven’t, but you know, Matthew Barzal only playing 30 games, Anthony Duclair playing five games, getting hurt, not being the same player that he was even after he returned when he tried to come back a little too quickly. All of these things factored into some of the struggles last year. But boy oh boy, when you have more balance, when you have more depth, when you have more overall talent, all of a sudden, this team, again, the present is better, the future looks even brighter, and it’s just reasons for hope and encouragement for New York Islander fans. We have got a lot more to get to on today’s show. We’ll talk about some of your mailbag questions, including something that’s been on the minds of a lot of Islander fans in recent weeks. And oh yes, for our Islanders birthday of the day, a goalie who was with the team in the late 80s to early 90s. Let’s see if you can guess who that is, and we’ll talk about the impact he had on the team. All that and more next on today’s Lockdown Islanders podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Drip Drop. When I’m hydrated, everything just works better. My focus, energy, mood, even my skin. That’s why I’ve been using Drip Drop, the doctor developed hydration that keeps me running at full power, no matter what my day looks like. Drip Drop isn’t your average sports drink. It delivers three times the electrolytes and half the sugar of leading brands using a sciencebacked formula trusted by medical professionals, firefighters, and over 90% of top collagen proteins. I like using Drip Drop as part of my daily routine. I’ll mix a packet in the morning before I I go to the pool or to get me through that midday slump. And it actually tastes amazing. Hydration has now become non-negotiable for me. Drip Drop helps me feel sharper, calmer, and honestly, just better overall. Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code locked on NHL. That’s dripdrop.com. Promo code locked on NHL for 20% off. Stock up now before the heat hits hard. Keep your body and mind performing at their best with Drip Drop. So, let’s dip into the mailbag and and always great to hear from all of you. I love getting your uh questions and and and just talking about what’s on your mind. This one comes from Matt in Wall, New Jersey. Gil, glad to finally have hockey and lockdown Islanders five days a week again. I think as we look at this team, we see a bright future with a good amount of young talent on the horizon. I think an issue we overlook is the contracts given by Lou and the few spots that are open for these young players. Although it’s a great problem to have, we have too many players who may be ready in the next year or two, but they also have too many guys here on the downhill and somewhat immovable. Guys like Warren and George probably deserve more of a shot. But Mayfield, Pock, Pel, they’ve been uh they have term and that may make them more difficult to move. Same issue on offense. You have Shabanov, Richie, and maybe Eerman. How do you see this working out? Matt from Wall, New Jersey. First of all, Matt, thank you so much for the question. I think this is all part of Matthew Dar’s plan, and obviously the proof will be in the pudding. You’re right. We are still, and uh I’ve talked about this on the show before, we are still stuck with some of these bad Lamarello contracts uh with no trade clauses and modified no trade clauses and guys who, you know, have too many years left on their contracts or getting too much money or both. But there are reasons for hope. Number one, some of those no trade clauses will become modified no trade clauses. So, yeah, you can’t trade them to all of the other 31 teams in the league, but you could probably trade some of these guys to half of the league. Next up, the salary cap keeps going up. So what were really bad contracts when they were handed out because the cap keeps going up and salaries keep going up they’re not as bad as they were two three four years ago. So all of a sudden you know Anders Lee a year ago two years ago making $7 million was outrageous. Now, he had a really good year last year, but he wasn’t even last year. If if you can recall, uh during the off season, we did a a show on contract values. We we went sometimes player by player, and even after last year’s great season, Anders Lee was not providing value at $7 million. It was like 5.5 million. And that was off, you know, a resurgence year. But while two, three years ago, $7 million a year for Anders Lee was, you know, not tradable and, you know, he also had three, four years left on his contract. Now he’s got one year left on his contract. And while $7 million may be a little bit high, you can move that contract because a you could retain some salary and you’d only have to retain it for the rest of this year. and B, uh, again, if you’re talking roughly at the trade deadline, you’re you’re looking at, you know, a team picking up what, 15 games worth of of salary, a month and a half, two months, playoffs, it doesn’t count the same way. So, given all of those things, I think there is a little more flexibility than there was. And yes, having these bad contracts and no trade clauses is an issue, but Matthew Dar is going to gradually make moves. And what we’ve seen him do that I am encouraged by, he brought in guys like Am Heinaman in the trade for Noah Dobson. He brought in guys like Jonathan Druan. Uh but what did he do? He signs Drewanne to a two-year deal. Druan is a veteran. He’s tradable. And you know, it’s a shortterm fix. So if you want to hold on to Drewan, you could do that. Next year is the last year of his contract. So you could trade him this year, you could trade him next year. It’s not a long-term commitment. And think about guys like Ecklund for example or uh you know Eerman who you mentioned. They’re going to they’re not ready yet. They may be ready late this year. They may be ready in another year or two. But as guys like Pacio or Lee or Druan uh or if you can move Mayfield or Angal or Sikas as these guys get moved then you gradually bring the new guys in and better yet you move them for more picks, more prospects or younger NHL ready players like an Amale Heinman and you get this team to speed up that retool, build for the future, and and that’s what I think Matthew Dar’s plan is. Ownership is not letting him totally tear it down and build it up from from the the get-go. It is going to be a balancing act, but I think Matthew Dar can get it done. We will see if that’s true, but Matt, thank you so much. Uh, next question is from Thomas in Queens, friend of the show. Uh, Thomas asks, “In Bridgeport, who do you see having the best chance of a callup if someone underperforms or is injured?” Uh, Thomas, it’s a loaded question, and I’ll tell you why. It depends on who’s slumping, who is injured, and who’s playing well down at Bridgeport. I I I think that is sort of uh all part of the equation. Uh if you need an enforcer, you know, is Hunter Drew considered someone you could bring up short term? Mark Gatkam, I think, still would make more sense on the fourth line than some of the guys they have there right now. Uh you you mentioned Isaiah George. I’d like to see him get a chance to come up and and show what he could do. although he’s been struggling a little bit down in Bridgeport. So, you know, the answer unfortunately is it depends. Uh we saw Warren do a pretty good job when he was called up. So, I think the best part of the answer that I have is there are options and it’ll depend on, you know, do you need a left shot defenseman, a right shot defenseman, do you need a a grinder for the fourth line, do you need a goal scorer? uh who’s hot at Bridgeport at the time of an injury or a slump. All of these things will be factors. But the good news is Bridgeport, while it’s not ideal yet, not a black hole anymore of uh you know, the place where prospects go and disappear, never to be seen at the NHL level again. So I, you know, I can’t answer your question entirely or directly, but I I think we’re in a better place now than we certainly were a year ago. We have got more to discuss on today’s show, our weekly prospects and farm report. We’ll talk about the Islanders future stars. All that and more coming up on today’s Lock on Islanders podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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Once again, thank you for making Locked On Islanders your first listen of the day and thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Time for our weekly Farm and Prospects report. And again, thank you so much to Josh for all of his help putting this together. We start in Bridgeport and uh Bridgeport played three games this past week and the results were not bad. First game though was kind of a a disappointment. The Lehigh Valley fandoms downing the Islanders 6-2. Uh but you know this this is going to happen. They’re going to have their off off nights and Marcus Hogberg kind of struggling in this one. Chris Terry got the first goal for Bridgeport uh which was really great to see. And then Matthew Majio’s shot was redirected by Matthew Hymore for the other goal that made it 2-2 before the bottom fell out. Then the Islanders come back and beat the Springfield Thunderbirds 6-2. And uh you know this game Milan Luchich playing for Springfield as he begins his comeback attempt. But Mark Gatkam getting a rebound uh after a breakaway chance by Matthew Hymore was uh stopped. So Gatkam getting on the board for his first goal with Bridgeport this year. Uh Joey Larson scoring and again just a strong game. Peter Ghagen in goal in this one. uh Dylan C uh Dalon Kofler scoring a goal to make it three to one. This was a solid effort and a big fourgoal win for Bridgeport. And then again the Thunderbirds a 6-1 win on November 8th. So back-to-back 6261 wins kind of like a onesided tennis match. And uh great to see the way this Islanders team is kind of building on things. Matthew Hymore and Matthew Majio now tied for the team lead with nine points. Hymore two goals. Majio one. Uh this is through 12 games. Joey Larson leading the team with six goals. Alex Jeff three goals, eight points in 12 games. And uh we we mentioned Hunter Drew. He has 39 penalty minutes, which by far leads the team. He also has four goals and three assists. Uh so again, good to see this team playing better hockey. In goal, Marcus Hogberg, a 253 goals against in a 909 save percentage. Parker Gahhagen 329 goals against and an 883 save percentage right now. Bridgeport in sixth place in the Atlantic division with 11 points through 12 games. They’re 56 and one. And if we look to the schedule this week, uh only uh well, we have three games on tap tonight. a home game against the Wilks Bar Scranton Penguins. That’s a 10:30 to afternoon start. So 10:30 a.m. on that one. And then Friday, the Islanders will visit Wilsbar Scranton. That’s a 7:05 start. And then they’ll return home Saturday to face the Rochester Americans in Bridgeport. That’s a 7:00 start. So another busy week for the the Bridgeport Islanders. And again, if you want to see some of these Islanders players uh right now before they reach the island, definitely check out the Bridgeport Islanders. You can take the ferry and head up to Bridgeport or you can watch the games on AHL TV. Just some news uh again, and thanks to Josh for some of this. Uh Jesse Pulkinan recalled to Bridgeport from the Worcester Railers of the ECHL, but Cali Odilius sent back down. Meanwhile, over in the KHL, goalie Dimmitri Gamson is now the starter for CSKA Moscow and he had a 24 save shutout on Saturday. So that’s very good. and Denil Procarov uh captaining his team in an under 20 tournament in Russia. They went two and one in the three games and Proarov had a goal and a helper. Victor Ecklan playing for Sweden’s under 20 team in some friendlies before the World Juniors. He had a goal and two assists. and uh Kashan Herson a hat-tick in the first period of a game last Friday. He has been on fire, but little bad news on uh HS as well. Uh he has again been suspended uh for two games after an incident in a game or after a game ended uh against the Sue Greyhounds. The Greyhounds win the game in a shootout, but there was some words and uh some gestures and some extracurriculars after the game. Uh both teams leave the ice. The fans were angry at the Barry Colts and Hes dumped a water bottle on one of the vis uh one of the other teams fans and as a result he’s been suspended for two games. So obviously uh he needs to work on that temper just a little bit and keep it appropriate. But uh he’s on fire. I mean he has been playing lights out. A period a first period hat-tick is impressive. And oh yeah uh Tristan Lennox 45 saves in a game for Worcester in the ECHL. Now, they didn’t win the game, but given up uh three goals on 48 shots, a pretty good uh performance right there for Tristan Lennox. So, some good news up and down the prospect pool. Time now for our Islanders birthday of the day. And we’re a day early, but uh Thursday will be the 57th birthday of former Islanders goalie Mark Fitzpatrick. The Toronto native, a second round pick of the LA Kings in 1987, made his NHL debut for LA in 1988, joined the Islanders uh for the uh later on rather in the 8889 season. stayed with the team through the 9293 campaign, kind of overcame some uh health issues in the middle of all that. One of his better games as an Islander. November 30th, 1989, Islanders visiting the old Chicago Stadium as they face the Blackhawks. Mark Fitzpatrick, obviously the goalie for the Islanders. Alain Chevron in between the pipes for Chicago. And the after a scoreless first period, the Islanders get a second period goal from Allen Kerr and a third period goal by Yubie Mcdana as they go on to beat the Blackhawks by a final score of two to nothing. The Islanders were outshot 31-20 in this game, but Mark Fitzpatrick made 31 saves to earn the shut out after leaving the Islanders. By the way, Fitzpatrick later played for the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Blackhawks, and briefly in Carolina. Uh he finished his NHL career with a 312 goals against average and an 896 save percentage. And uh well, Mark Fitzpatrick is our Islanders birthday of the day. Thank you for making locked on Islanders your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the allnew locked on NHL game night. Every game, every night until the Stanley Cup champion is crowned, get local analysis on a national scale. You could find NHL game night on Locked on NHL, on YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It’s part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. If you have a question, a comment, maybe a topic you’d like us to discuss on a future episode, email us at lockedon [email protected]. And if you leave your first name and where you’re from, we’re happy to mention you on the show like we did today when we discuss whatever’s on your mind. You can follow the show on X at Locked on Isles and you can follow me, Gil Martin, on X at Icew Wars, NYRVSY. We’ll keep you up to date on all things Island Islanders all year long and I am live tweeting during nearly every Islanders home and road game. So join me for a little instant insight and analysis and it’s great to talk Island Islanders hockey with you game time or anytime. We will be back tomorrow uh everydayers and uh we will preview the Thursday night game for the New York Islanders in Vegas against the Golden Knights. That will not be an easy game. It’s a 10:00 Eastern time start. So, also just to let everybody know, uh we usually premiere on YouTube at midnight. It will probably be about an hour after the game ends that we actually premiere. So, uh if you can stay up, great. If not, you can catch the show first thing in the morning. Uh until then, have a great day everybody. Stay safe and of course, let’s go Islanders.

New York Islanders transform into an offensive powerhouse as balanced scoring and youth injection spark hope for fans. Eight players—Bo Horvat, Kyle Palmieri, Mathew Barzal, Matt Schaefer, JG Pageau, Anders Lee, Jonathan Drouin, and Emil Heineman—already hit double-digit points through 16 games, a feat not seen since the 1987-88 season. Can this newfound depth and speed propel the Islanders back into playoff contention?

Gil Martin breaks down GM Mathieu Darche’s pivotal roster moves, the emergence of Schaefer and Heineman, and the impact of healthier, faster lines. Listener mailbag highlights concerns about contract logjams from the Lou Lamoriello era and how rising prospects like Shabanov, Ritchie, and Eiserman may break through. The episode also covers Bridgeport Islanders’ farm system progress, key performances from prospects, and wraps with a tribute to former goalie Mark Fitzpatrick. Don’t miss this comprehensive outlook on the Islanders’ rejuvenated future.

All this and more on today’s Locked On Islanders Podcast with Gil Martin.

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