If general manager Lou Lamoriello wants to make serious changes to the Islanders’ core, the most obvious path would be moving Mathew Barzal back to his natural position of center.
Barzal moved to right wing out of necessity after the Islanders acquired Bo Horvat from Vancouver in late January.
That allowed coach Lane Lambert to simultaneously field a top-heavy first line, while getting Barzal — who finished the season at 35.6 percent on faceoffs — off the dots.
But with both players under contract for the next eight seasons, it would be a surprise to see Barzal on the wing for the duration.
“I’ve been a center for, I don’t know, 15 years. I wouldn’t say it was extremely natural right away,” Barzal said on the Islanders’ breakup day. “Playing with Bo or a little bit with [Jean-Gabriel Pageau] there late, they make it easy because they are just in the right positions and they are predictable.
“I would say the biggest thing as a centerman is crossing over a little bit more, whereas winger’s a little bit more stop and start, kind of on your side of the ice a little bit more. I think that was one thing getting used to, I wasn’t in all areas of the ice as much as I was at center. There’s definitely a little bit of a mentality shift.”
Complicating the matter is that before he suffered a suspected knee injury, Barzal played just seven games next to Horvat during the regular season. Barzal returned for Game 1 of the playoffs, looked off his game against the Hurricanes.
It also might be self-defeating for the Islanders to so quickly give up on the idea of playing Barzal alongside Horvat, given the chemistry they had together during the regular season and how long the organization had searched for the right linemates to match Barzal’s style of play.
“That’s not ultimately my decision,” Barzal said. “I think whether I’m wing or center, if me and Bo are on the ice together, we should be able to create. … Positionally, like I said, that’s not really my call.”
Over the short term, that is true.
Lamoriello is not going to let stars make decisions for him. Still, if Barzal’s preference is to play in the middle, it is hard to construct a scenario in which that is not an eventuality — and it would be prudent for the Islanders to act as such.
The Islanders have depth down the middle, and a lack of it on the wing. Both of those qualities would become accentuated if Barzal were to switch back to center, with the domino effect being that one from among Horvat, Brock Nelson, Pageau or Casey Cizikas would be unable to play center.
That would make it possible to trade one of them, preferably to get back a wing, some much-needed youth or both.
Horvat can be crossed off as a trade possibility given he just signed an eight-year extension that includes a no-trade clause. Cizikas, who is 32 and under contract through 2027, has more value to the Islanders than he would anywhere else and would not clear much cap space, with just a $2.5 million hit.
Nelson and Pageau both have 16-team no-trade lists, and trading one would amount to a major shakeup to a core already likely to lose Josh Bailey this offseason. But both would suddenly be expendable at the right price in such a scenario, and either could bring back something of value.
It is far from a slam-dunk scenario — and since Lamoriello has retreated into silence since the end of the season, it is anyone’s guess as to what he is thinking — but the pieces do fit, if the Islanders can find the right trading partner to make it work.
Lamoriello is fond of repeating the axiom that if a trade will improve the team, he will make it.
Moving Barzal back to center could be the pathway.