Islanders will need young defenders to improve, but may have to add via free agency

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The sequence that ended the Islanders’ season against Carolina a week ago was representative of the kind of play that was probably one of coach Lane Lambert’s biggest fears heading into the first-round playoff series.

On one side were the Hurricanes, known as perhaps the best forechecking team in the league. On the other were the Islanders, whose defensemen often struggled to move the puck out of their own zone with the pace and cleanliness necessary to avoid trouble.

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So when the typically responsible Adam Pelech flubbed an outlet pass, with Paul Stastny charging toward him in the Islanders’ defensive zone, eventually leading to Stastny zipping home a bad-angle shot in overtime, it served as the final reminder that the Islanders are going to have to be better in that area next season. Much better, even.

Paul Stastny. Series winner. In overtime. pic.twitter.com/JoH2B7dukz

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 29, 2023

Speaking on Monday after the Islanders’ final team gathering before the summer, Pelech said: “That’s always the focus, breaking the puck out as quickly and efficiently as we can. Against Carolina, they’re a team that makes that extremely difficult, more so than any other team in the league, probably. That was definitely part of the reason why we didn’t win the series, because we didn’t break the puck out effectively. But, that’s also what they do.

“It’s such an important part of the game, and it’s a part of the game where we need to get better. And, we can.”

Whether they can, though, will depend on some improvement from some of the players on the roster, and maybe some help from the outside, too.

Prior to the NHL draft last July, general manager Lou Lamoriello — who hasn’t yet spoken publicly since the Islanders’ season ended — said that in a “perfect world” the team would add both an offensive and defensive defenseman.

While he snagged hard-hitting Alexander Romanov from Montreal for a first-round pick a few days later, it’s reasonable to believe that both of those will be positions of need heading into the 2023 off-season. Pending free agent Scott Mayfield could be on his way out, leaving a hole in terms of size and penalty-killing ability, while the necessity for another puck-mover has yet to be addressed.

Among the unrestricted free agents, right-shot defensemen that are more mobile and offensively oriented than Mayfield include John Klingberg, Matt Dumba and Damon Severson. Perhaps one of those guys will be targeted as a Mayfield replacement on the right side.

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In terms of players already here, though, we can probably assume that among the Islanders’ regular defenders this season, Pelech, Romanov, Ryan Pulock and Noah Dobson will almost certainly return. Pelech and Pulock are still in the primes of their careers on reasonable contracts, while Dobson and Romanov are still young and developing.

Those latter two will have to take steps forward next season if the defense as a whole is going to be better. They both, at times, struggled with the puck in the defensive end.

“Of course. Especially me,” Romanov said, when asked about the Islanders having to break out better next season. “I should improve that, 100 percent.”

Said Dobson: “Overall, I think I’m still young where I can still keep getting better in every area.”

What was supposed to be the Islanders’ second defense pair behind Pelech and Pulock didn’t stay together very long. They were split up on Nov. 23, in the Islanders’ 21st game of the season, and mostly stayed apart after that (the pair spent 239 minutes together at five-on-five through the first 20 games, and just 176 minutes in 52 games after that). In the playoffs, they didn’t take a single shift together.

While they weren’t exactly caved in as a pair, with a shot-attempt share of 49.0 percent and and expected-goals share of 48.0 according to Natural Stat Trick, there were too many moments in which they were pressured into giveaways and turnovers. The result was an Islanders defense group that was constantly in flux both down the stretch and into the playoffs. Romanov’s shoulder injury, forcing him from the lineup for the final five regular season games and first two playoff games, complicated the situation, too, and he admitted that he was playing through significant pain in the four games he dressed against the Hurricanes.

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Dobson, especially, was in the spotlight late in the season and into the playoffs. He was benched for the final nine-and-a-half minutes in Game 5 with the Islanders hanging on to a one-goal lead after what looked to be a lack of aggressiveness in the defensive zone on a couple of Carolina goals, and was taken off of the ineffective top power-play unit for Game 6.

When asked to reflect on his season on Monday, the 23-year-old Dobson, who had 13 goals and 49 points in 78 games, said: “Did some things that I liked a lot, and obviously I’m excited to use the summer as an opportunity where I can work on things and keep getting better with my game. It’s a long year, there’s always ups and downs.”

Pulock is familiar with those ups and downs as a defenseman trying to become a nightly, impact player. In fact, his career arc toward becoming a top-pair NHL defenseman was a year behind Dobson, as he didn’t enjoy his first true productive campaign until he was 23 years old in 2017-18.

“A lot of times I feel like as a player like (Dobson), being a skilled, offensive guy, a lot of it can depend on your confidence and how you’re feeling that night,” Pulock said. “Sometimes it’s tough to get back, and you have to work that much harder to get it back. You have to focus that much more on the little things, on the game, maybe away from the game, that can help you.

He continued: “Maybe (Dobson) wasn’t his best all season but he’s still young, he’s still growing, he’s learning. I’m still learning every year. I think it’s important for him to just regroup this summer, get ready for next year, whether that be off the ice, getting stronger, just focusing mentally on the right things, and I think he’ll come back next year and have a great year.”

It could be argued the coaching staff didn’t do Dobson any favors, either, continually rolling him out with the top power-play unit despite that group’s failures.

Dobson admitted that those frequent oh-fers on the power play, which finished 30th in the NHL in the regular season and dead last in the playoffs, were frustrating.

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“We all have pride, and we all know what we’re capable of, what we need to do,” he said. “The power play is important. I think when things don’t go well, that can weigh on you, as well. As it snowballs, and doesn’t keep getting better — it’s tough.”

That said, he pushed back on a suggestion that his confidence sometimes waned this season.

“I don’t think, necessarily,” he said. “I think I’ve always had the confidence, I just thought sometimes things came easier (or) came harder (at) different times.”

That’s something that can be said for the Islanders’ defense group as a whole, too.

Said Pelech: “We’ve just got to reflect on an individual level, figure out how to be better, how to come back better, and get back to the playoffs, and hopefully in those big moments the game goes the other way and we win something.”

(Photo: Dennis Schneidler / USA TODAY Sports)