Islanders' defensemen depth will be tested vs. Penguins

Patrick Roy’s mind drifted back.

Back to 2001. Back to Denver. Back when he was the starting goaltender for one of the NHL’s superpowers, the Avalanche.

“When we won the Cup in 2001, we played four [defensemen],” Roy said after practice Monday at Northwell Health Ice Center. “It was [Raymond] Bourque, [Rob] Blake. It was [Adam] Foote and [Martin] Skoula. And we had [Greg] de Vries and [Jon] Klemm playing five, six minutes a night.”

Roy’s abbreviated trip back in time is instructive for the 2024-25 Islanders, who, like his former team, find their options on the back end limited.

Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Penguins, the Islanders have only three healthy defensemen out of the six they started the season with: Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield. The other three — Adam Pelech (jaw, long term injured reserve), Alexander Romanov (upper body, day-to-day) and Mike Reilly (upper body, day-to-day) — are out until further notice. Skating in their place were Dennis Cholowski, Grant Hutton and Samuel Bolduc.

It is not how Roy and Lou Lamoriello drew it up before training camp. But without Pelech, Romanov and Reilly, the Islanders are going to lean heavily on Dobson, Pulock and Mayfield.

Each member of the trio finished with more than 20 minutes of ice time in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers. Pulock received 29:24 spanning 38 shifts. Dobson finished with 25:21 on 34 shifts. Mayfield clocked in with 32 shifts and 23 minutes.

“When guys [are] out, when guys are injured, you just have that [mindset of] it’s a challenge,” Mayfield said. “Everyone has a responsibility, everyone has a job on this team. When there are guys hurt, sometimes that job changes a little bit. Whether it’s ice time or certain different positions in the game, line matchups, stuff like that. I think that’s always part of the responsibility.”

Fair points. But is the additional workload sustainable over an extended period of time? That is a question whose answer is still to be determined. Roy used the 2000-01 Avalanche defense corps as an example of what is possible, and data points culled from hockey-reference.com both confirm and contradict his argument.

Bourque (26:06) and Blake (26:03) each averaged more than 26 minutes of ice time per game and Foote (25:22) and Skoula (20:41) played more than 20 minutes per game. But then-Avalanche coach Bob Hartley did not limit de Vries and Klemm’s ice time. Klemm averaged 19:38 per game and de Vries skated 17:06 per game.

How do those numbers compare to Cholowski, Hutton and Bolduc’s ice time against the Rangers? Hutton finished with 14:14 and Cholowski had 13:53. Bolduc was limited to 5:56 on 11 shifts and was sent down to AHL Bridgeport on Monday.

So while he did not make an exact comparison, Roy did make it clear that Dobson, Mayfield and Pulock will receive additional ice time.

“These guys are capable of handling those minutes,” Roy said. “So I’m comfortable with that. I just think that it’s a great experience for a Hutton and for a Cholowski and even for Bolduc. They’re capable of doing [a] good job and learning and [feeling] more comfortable.”