With the signing of Anthony Duclair to a four-year contract and the one-year contract extension of Mike Reilly, the New York Islanders had a busy start to free agency. After that, they signed Simon Holmstrom and a few more skaters to the AHL again. The squad still needs to add potential, especially in the bottom six, even though the current moves have filled up the deficiencies from the previous campaign. Fortunately, Alex Nylander, a free agent, would be a perfect match and should be reachable.
Nylander is a winger that is six feet one inch and has played in 121 NHL games. He has played for four different NHL clubs at the age of 28. His most recent team was the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he finished the previous season with 23 games played with 11 goals and 15 points. He was granted unrestricted free agency since the team chose not to bring him back in spite of this.
Despite battling a few minor ailments throughout the previous season, Nylander had an incredible game while he was on the ice. He is a very skilled and intuitive skater who can be difficult to find. With his deadly wrist shot, he can beat the goalie from anywhere on the ice. He enjoys using his soft hands and vision to make smooth passes around the offensive zone’s perimeter.
Nylander had the best success with the Blue Jackets when he played with Cole Sillinger and Alexandre Texier. Together, the line scored eight goals in 13 games, or 6.64 goals per sixty minutes. According to MoneyPuck, Nylander alone concluded the season in the top three places among Blue Jackets forwards in both categories with a 53.8 goals percentage (G%) and a 53.9 anticipated goals percentage (xG%). It is reasonable to be skeptical of his ability given that he has just twice in his career played more than 12 games in a season, but his per-60-minute rates and advanced analytics are excellent, indicating that his success is sustainable.
For the Islanders, Nylander makes a lot of sense for three major reasons. His offensive upside comes first. In the bottom six, the Islanders lack productivity, talent, and pace; Nylander would make up for these deficiencies. Holmstrom (15), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (11), Pierre Engvall (10), and Casey Cizikas (10), who all played in at least 70 games, were the Islanders’ top scorers in the bottom six last season. The Islanders would be acquiring a legitimate scoring threat with a 20+ goal potential if they signed Nylander.
Nylander’s sophisticated analytics are the second reason the Islanders need to seek him. Last season, Nylander would have rated as follows if he had been on Long Island:
With a meaningful place in a lineup, Nylander demonstrated his abilities, and his advanced stats show that his 23 games played and 11 goals were not an exception. His sophisticated analytics demonstrate that he can duplicate all of his great counting metrics, which makes him a strong contender to “break out” next season.
There’s nothing to lose, which is the third and most important reason the Islanders should focus on Nylander. It’s anticipated that he will sign a short-term contract for less than $1.1 million a year, which means the Islanders may pay him in the AHL at any time without it going against the salary cap. He would be a high-upside asset signed for almost the league minimum if he performs well in the preseason and gains a position in the NHL permanently.
Nylanders might play on the third line with Pageau and Anders Lee because of his scoring upside. One of the NHL’s top two-way centers, Pageau gives the Islanders great advantage in the offensive zone thanks to his 55.4 faceoff win %. Since Nylanders’ success last season stemmed from starting 21.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone, his highest percentage since 2018, this would be a wonderful method to take advantage of his arrival to the lineup.
With only 52.8% of his shifts commencing on the fly during the previous season, Nylander also gains from beginning each shift at the faceoff dot. In contrast, 52.8% or more of the Islanders’ shifts were began on the spot by all but two of them. For an individual like Nylander, who is excellent at seeing the ice well and setting up moves, success following a faceoff makes sense.
Nylander would gain a lot from playing with Lee, one of the NHL’s top net-front power forwards, from this point on. Nylander’s powerful wrist shot that creates a lot of rebounds is a stealthy one, and Lee excels at both screening the goaltender and tucking in rebounds.
The Islanders still have a lot of time in the offseason to make another move, either through a trade or free agency. They obviously need to acquire another depth forward, though, and Nylander would be the most reasonably priced option with his kind of explosive promise.