This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the New York Islanders this season. This article will focus on Anders Lee.
Lee had a rough start to the season, scoring just five goals and 10 points in his first 23 games of the year. He rebounded, however, to be one of New York’s top forwards for the remainder of the season, finishing on pace for 24 goals and 52 points. His corsi for percentage was decent this season at 51.2 per cent, a step up from the last two seasons, where he failed to hit 50 per cent.
While many members of the forward group have consistency problems, Lee struggles with this far less than others. He’s hard on the puck and can generate turnovers through stick lifts or throwing a hit. Even amidst the Islanders’ slump at the end of the season, Lee was doing what he could.
Having said that, while Lee is a great scorer and a hard-worker, he’s not necessarily first-line material. If the Islanders were to add a left winger, Lee would be a perfect fit on the second-line but right now he’s being counted on for too much. He played the second-most minutes at even strength of any forward on the Islanders, behind just Mathew Barzal but that shouldn’t be the ideal long-term fit for him.
Going forward, I think somewhere between 25 and 30 goals is a reasonable expectation for Lee. In his two seasons where he hit 34 and 40 goals respectively, his shooting percentage was 17.8 per cent and 19.2 per cent, which are both way up from his career average.
He’ll be turning 30 years old in July and though he’s locked in long-term, I wouldn’t worry about regression any time soon. Lee is a scorer who relies on hockey sense and can use his body to protect the puck and create turnovers, which are assets that typically survive against regression for quite some time. The Islanders’ captain remains one of the most well-rounded forwards on the team and despite a slow start to the year, Lee was back to being a very valuable member of the forward group by the time the season was put on pause.
Here’s today’s poll (results and discussion will be posted on Saturday):
Anders Lee's goal totals have fluctuated a bit in the past few seasons. Going forward, how many goals per year do you expect from Lee?
Check back tomorrow for a player profile on Matt Martin, followed by an article looking at potential trade options for the Islanders, which will be out on Friday!
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