Last time we went over predictions for the forwards I had from the pre season. Now, for the defensemen & goalies.
1) Alexander Romanov (Carson Soucy)
Prediction for Romanov: Actual for Soucy
6 goals 5 goals
18 assists 7 assists
24 points 12 points
Romanov's season ended prematurely after taking that brutal hit from behind by Mikko Rantanen against Dallas in November. After a couple months of rotating people in and out of that spot, the Islanders acquired Carson Soucy from the Rangers at the end of January for a 3rd round pick. Soucy showed some decent offense on occasion but going along with Mayfield big hulking guys who don't skate very well the fit was suspect to say the least. Soucy is a free agent now and I would be pretty surprised if he returns.
2) Adam Pelech
Prediction: Actual
2 goals 4 goals
18 assists 12 assists
20 points 16 points
Pelech had a rejuvenating season! He was healthy all season for the first time in a while, and managed to break what was a crazy long goalless streak. Defensively, he showed a lot of flashes of old throughout the season as well. His name has come up recently when discussing changes the Islanders could look to make this summer. Coming off his best season in a while but still having 3 years left on his contract, it could be advantageous to try and sell high on Pelech now.
3) Tony D'Angelo
Prediction: Actual
10 goals 5 goals
30 assists 35 assists
40 points 40 points
D'Angelo is an interesting guy, because he very much outperformed his contract. However, he isn't without his warts by any means. D'Angelo moves the puck well becuase of his good skating ability and some of the passes he is able to make leave you scratching your head like how did he feather that through? On the flip side though, holy crap is he turnover prone! I would be hesitant to give him term on an extension but if he would take another 1 year deal I would explore that this summer.
4) Ryan Pulock
Prediction: Actual
5 goals 3 goals
20 assists 24 assists
25 points 27 points
Much like Pelech, Pulock also had a rejuvenating season. Healthy for a good portion of the year like Pelech, we saw great strides in Pulock game back to the player he was when we signed him to his current contract. The lack of offense is still puzzling as I said in the pre season but thats just the player he is it seems.
5) Scott Mayfield
Prediction: Actual
3 goals 2 goals
10 assists 13 assists
13 points 15 points
Mayfield oh Mayfield, for part of the season I actually found myself cursing him less then I had in prior seasons. With that said, he is still a boat anchor back there and it would be of great benefit to the Islanders if they could figure out a way to move on from him and that horrible contract Lou signed him to.
6) Matthew Schafer
Prediction: Actual
1 goal 23 goals
2 assists 36 assists
3 points 59 points
Not only was Schaefer a huge surprise for the Islanders but his emergence rang bells around the NHL about the new superstar emerging on Long Island at only 18 years old. It was just crazy watching him night in and night out the things he was able to do out there at this age. Not only his play on the ice but his personality and attitude are one of a kind and fit perfect in this area. If this is just the beginning how good could the future get for him?
Goalies:
1) Ilya Sorokin
Prediction: Actual
30 wins 29 wins
20 loses 24 loses
5 OTL 2 OTL
2.60 GAA 2.68 GAA
.912 save % .906 save %
Sorokin had an up and down season to say the least. He started off really rough, which led to the dismissal of long time goalie coach Piero Greco. That change, plus the hiring of a mental health coach seemed to do wonders for Sorokin as he played the best he had in a while. However, excessive use and a poor defensive system ended up becoming too much for Sorokin to bear and down the stretch his performance suffered. With Peter DeBoer behind the bench, hopefully they return to a more structured defensive system to help Sorokin not be hung out to dry as much as he was this season.
2) David Rittich
Prediction: Actual
12 wins 14 wins
8 loses 10 loses
5 OTL 3 OTL
2.70 GAA 2.76 GAA
.907 save % .894 save %
Much like Sorokin, Rittch had an up and down season as well. Coming out of the gate the first few months for Rittich were pretty promising. However, that fizzled quick and Rittich was never able to recover as evidenced by his paltry .894 save %. There is some talk that we could see Rittich return next season, however Semyon Varlamov seems to be moving in the right direction after missing the entire season due to two separate knee replacements. Varlamov recently returned to Bridgeport and backstopped them to a 5-2 victory.
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