The New York Islanders were in action on Monday night, hosting Colorado. The team has gone through some brutal stretches this year, starting with that circus road trip to open the season. They didn't play a home game until November 20th, and then went through an extensive COVID outbreak. Since Christmas, the team has gone 13-11-2 (heading into Monday night's game), much more in line with what expected from them. Of course, it's a long climb to the playoffs because of how good the East is up top, so it's likely too little, too late.

That doesn't' mean it's a lost season, though. Noah Dobson has been solid at both ends for the Islanders, and also given them a power-play quarterback they can look to for the future. His peripherals have seen a bit uptick, along with his ice time, and that's really making him a valuable fantasy asset. We'll see what the team looks like next year, but he seems to be at the top of the depth chart in many regards now. There have been ongoing defensive issues with Oliver Wahlstrom, but he's developing in a real power-play threat, and that's good news for a team that can struggle to score at times.

Then there is Kieffer Bellows. I was never a fan of the 2016 first rounder as a prospect, and certainly not where he was drafted in the middle of the first round. Nevertheless, he has found his way to some regular time this year given all the injuries the Islanders have had.

Bellows's problem is that he just hasn't taken a step forward offensively. His shot rate per 60 minutes is actually fine – second on the team behind Wahlstrom – but outside the top-9 forwards in high-danger chances. Both he and Wahlstrom, they're taking a lot of shots, but there are not many dangerous shots, and it's why neither are among the top-3 goals per 60 minutes despite leading the team in shot rate. By most metrics, he hasn't done much defensively, either, or at least not enough to be considered a standout. He's just… shooting from bad spots and that's about it.

This is where I remind everyone the last two years have been a catastrophe for player development, and prospect progression isn't linear as it is. With that said, Bellows had 50 points in 125 AHL games *before* the pandemic and just hasn't done much to show he's improved since. He will be 24 years old next season and that means time is starting to run out. We'll see how these final seven weeks go but a healthy Islanders team probably has their top-6 filled already. We have seen players undergo major turnarounds even in the middle of their careers, so he can too, we just need to see more from him than he’s done so far.

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Updates on Jason Zucker and Mike Matheson:

Zucker and Matheson are still on the ice, although their session with Ty Hennes figures to be wrapping up before too terribly much longer.

— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) March 7, 2022

Obviously, without practice time with the team, they are not imminently returning or anything. But they don't seem to be so far away, and Matheson's injury looked like it may be a lot longer than this. Hopefully, there is more good news to come this week.

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We have a new Detroit top-6:

Jakub Vrana skating on a line with Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri today. Bertuzzi back up with Larkin and Raymond

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) March 7, 2022

The team wouldn't commit to Vrana starting next game, but it does seem likely. That also reunites their old top line, one that has largely been dominant whenever they skated together.

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I saw a tweet not long ago that was something along the lines of Jason Robertson being better than Kirill Kaprizov through their first two seasons. I wasn't so sure, and then Robertson posted back-to-back hat tricks on the weekend. Alright then.

Of course, scoring six goals in two games doesn't mean anything other than a player scored six goals in two games. But it does give us a reason to look a bit deeper into what he's done in his two seasons.

I think the first thing I want to look at is his impact on Roope Hintz. The young centre has looked excellent over most of the last two years, looking every bit the number-1 centre the team needs. Of course, looks can be deceiving, which is why we use numbers to back up those assertions. Here is how the team has fared with Hintz on the ice, both with and without Robertson on his wing (data from Natural Stat Trick):

• With: 3.04 expected goals for/2.05 expected goals against per 60 minutes, for an xG% of 59.7%. By actual goals scored and allowed: 4.02 for per 60 and 2.23 against per 60, or 64.3% of the goals.
• Without: 2.6 expected goals for/2.18 expected goals against per 60 minutes, or a 54.4% xG share. By actual goals scored and allowed: 2.55 for/2.36 against for 51.9% of the goal share.

To be clear here, Robertson's numbers get worse without Hintz as well, but the scoring chances allowed are lower, the shot share is much higher, and on and on. This isn't to say Hintz is bad or needs to be carried, but rather Robertson is a huge difference-maker on the wing.

There may be some work for Robertson to do defensively before he reaches something approaching MVP quality, but he's honestly not far off. He's inside the top-10 forwards of the league in WAR/60 over the last two years, according to Evolving Hockey. By just regular points/60 minutes over these last two years, he sits 12^th among all regular forwards, and ahead of names like Barkov, Crosby, Marner, and Pastrnak. If he can keep up this level of production, and actually get to 19-20 minutes a game regularly, we could be looking at an elite fantasy asset moving forward.

The big problem is the quality of the Dallas roster. Joe Pavelski has looked great on that top line, playing to nearly a point-per-game over these two seasons. He also turns 38 this summer and guys his age can't keep up that level of play for much longer. He's a UFA anyway, so there's no guarantee he's back next year, even if he can keep playing like this. The Benn/Seguin/Radulov trio seem to have finally start to hit a collective decline, though the latter is also UFA this offseason. They need the kids to step up, beyond Hintz, Robertson, and Miro Heiskanen, and there's a lot of work to do in that regard.

In the right situation, I think Robertson genuinely has 100-point upside. The question is if he can get there in Dallas if this team doesn't fill the talent gaps as their core ages. We're going to find out, but it's a big question for fantasy hockey owners, especially those in cap leagues, as Robertson is due a big raise in the offseason as an RFA.

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It has been a real weird year for Oliver Bjorkstrand. Remember the start he had? Feels like forever ago but he did begin the season with 19 points in 19 games, including six goals and over three shots per game. He slowed down a bit as we approached Christmas, when the league was being torn up by COVID, with four points in five games before his break. But then his team had some games paused, he went on the COVID list, and he didn't play for three weeks. He had a brutal January, with five points in 13 games, landing fewer than two shots per game. Fantasy owners were getting nervous, but since the All-Star Break, he has 11 points in 13 games, scoring seven goals. Not shooting a ton, but he's also skating 16:30 a night, or about three minutes less than earlier in the season.

My belief is that the young team doesn't have a reliable centre after Boone Jenner, and with Bjorkstrand not skating much with him of late, it's been a jumble of centres and wingers. That, with the lost ice time, will hurt, but he's still having a good fantasy season overall. Over his last three seasons, he's averaging 30 goals per 82 games. There is a lot of fantasy upside here, but he needs more help around him, and he needs more power-play time.

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With a goal and two assists in Florida's 6-1 win over Buffalo, Aleksander Barkov has now pushed up to 55 points in 43 games on the season. To date, it's by far his best point-per-game pace of his career, and it ties his goal output from last year (26) in seven fewer games. Not a bad year so far.

With two points of his own, Anthony Duclair is now one away from tying a career-high for a single season (44). He will get there in probably 30 fewer games than that 2015-16 season when he set that career-best, too. Not a bad year for him, either.

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Nathan MacKinnon (1+2) and Cale Makar (2+1) each had three points in Colorado's 5-4 win over the New York Islanders. The two of them also combined for 17 shots on a night where the team generated 49.

For Makar, he is now up to 20 goals on the season off 162 shots in 53 games. While I have my doubts about a defenceman keeping up 11%+ shooting, he does play a game almost no other blue liner can. He is just fun to watch.