The offense needs some tweaks but I truly do not think that is the problem. The Islanders do not have a great defense anymore. Lou took our elite defense to make the offense better but now neither is elite.
I'd say that without any doubt whatsoever, the two most pressing changes to this line-up - and we need this from the outside - are the additions of two top 6 wingers, one for the Barzal-Horvat pairing and one for the Nelson-Palmieri pairing.
No doubt.
That is construction site number 1, first and foremost.
This team goes nowhere without the production from
Player Numero Tres on those two pairings being considerably more productive than what we saw this season. The whole outlook changes exponentially the minute those two spots combine to churn out 90+ points as opposed to 60+.
Exponentially!
Both goaltending and defense have enough in them to rebound if it's deemed that there's not enough space to do anything more than tweaking (and Högberg being added means the goaltending has been tweaked - now we just need a way to retain Reilly).
Yes, I'd love to see a number of changes to the group on whole, but when simply looking at the most pressing needs with respect to the guys under contract, that tops the list.
Really no reason to tackle other things until you upgrade from Lee and Engvall in those spots.
Going into the playoffs with Cizikas and Fasching in top six roles - no disrespect to either - was absolutely comical. It was an announcement to the league that this organization wasn't serious about getting more than one or two wins in the first round.
Sadly, it wouldn't be half bad having Engvall and Lee on the bottom two lines, but to pay 10 MM per for that is wasted dough. Big time!
Lou is going to have to find a way.
And I really like what we've ultimately seen from Holmstrom. There's a player here. But he's not ready to be a 50-point guy in a top 6 role next season. They should be concentrating on making him a more consistant Line 3 player.
Also Dobson got 70 points and the next Dman had like 20. Adding movement from the backend will help the frontend
On the other hand, Reilly was on a very decent PPG pace as your second most productive Dman.
Realistically, we should all expect Dobson to dial back down to 50-55 points next season. Those 70 points were born of gobs and gobs of ice time, but the kind that are neither sustainable nor a boon over the long run.
What happened over the final 20-25 games (incl. POs) was directly related to his overuse during midseason.