How Was Anders Lee This Season and What Does the Future Hold for the New York Islanders Captain?

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today we begin our Player by Player review of the season with the captain, Andrew Lee, what kind of a season did he have? And what are his prospects for the coming year? We've got that plus the latest on the coach and GM situations and a lot more on today's Lockdown Islanders Podcast. Slides it out for Agilella. Back to Hoffman, locked by Paul Agile twice. Another spectacular stop. For Sartis, it often is made by Mabrowski Nelson, Lars Elle with the Open Entity Scars. Hi and welcome to the Lockdown Islanders Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm your host, Gil Martin. I'm an Islanders columnist and historian, and I wrote the book Ice Wars, which covers the complete history of the Islanders' rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 to the modern era. And welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Lockdown Islanders Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everybody for making Lockdown Islanders your first listen every day. Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast so you can get new episodes as soon as they drop, and the Lockdown Islanders Podcast is now available on SiriusXM on the SXM app. So just do a search for Islanders. So much to talk about on today's show. But first, if there's something Islanders related on your mind, if you have a question, a comment, maybe a topic you'd like us to bring up on a future episode, feel free to send us an email, the email address, locked on Islanders at gmail.com. If you leave your first name and where you're from, we're happy to mention you on the show when we discuss whatever it is that's on your mind. You can also follow the show on Twitter at locked on isles, and you can follow me, Gil Martin on Twitter at Ice Wars, NYR, VSNYI. We'll keep you up to date on everything throughout this offseason from firings, firings, trade rumors, free agency, the draft, you name it, if it's Islanders related, we'll have it for you here on Locked on Islanders. So the Islanders left their training facility a week ago after their elimination by the Carolina Hurricanes in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs and team took off and headed for their full time non-off season residences. That's going to mean different things for different people. We even heard from Oliver Wollstrom and we know during the season, during the playoffs, players who were on injured reserve are not made available to the media while he was made available. So pretty much almost every player who the media wanted to speak to was made available and was addressing the media talking about the season, talking about their future. But here we are, a week later, we were originally told to expect maybe at the end of last week that we would hear from Lula Morello, the general manager, and Lane Lambert, the head coach, and we still haven't heard anything from either one of them. And it gets people speculating, it gets people thinking, and what's going on here. So let's start with what we do know. Well we don't know for sure, but the widely held belief is that Lula Morello's contract ends at the end of this season. That means June 30th, July 1st, his deal will be up. Now Lula Morello, typically very tight-lipped about this, neither confirms nor denies the contract terms, when it's up, what the numbers are. He isn't going there. He's never gone there in recent memory, certainly not with the Islanders. I don't expect him to go there again. But what we do know is that what happens to Lula Morello is going to have a big impact on what happens to Lane Lambert. So Lambert got the team into the playoffs his first year as head coach, he's been an assistant for four years prior to that under Barry Trotts and Lane Lambert, let's face it, he was an assistant under Barry Trotts in Washington and in Nashville. He was there for a long time. He got the team into the playoffs despite an inconsistent season, despite the lack of speed and offensive talent on this team, but there were inconsistencies. So what are the possibilities? Where can we go? Well, we've said before and every day, as you understand that, we've said, if Lane Lambert, if Lula Morello doesn't come back, the chances of Lane Lambert coming back go way down. So the new GM, whoever he may be, would want to bring in his own coach. That's pretty normal. All things considered. So the question really becomes, if Lane Lambert, if Lula Morello stays, what happens to Lane Lambert, Lula Morello, like I said, when he was with the Devils, he fired Larry Robinson with what? About two, three games left in the regular season, even though the Devils at that point were in first place in the division, but they were slumping. He didn't think they were ready for the playoffs. He fired him. So if Lula Morello stays, it's probable that Lane Lambert is back, but certainly not definite. And the question then becomes, if Lane Lambert isn't there, who is out there? Well, Joel Quenville is theoretically out there, although he is still suspended by the NHL for his role in the scandal back in 2010 in Chicago that just became public at the beginning of last season. So he is technically needs to apply for reinstatement. The league has not yet said he's back. We know the Rangers fired Gerard Galant. He is available. We know the flames parted ways with Darryl Sutter. We know Dallas Eacons is out there. Peter Laviolette is a name we've talked about before. He has coached the New York Islanders. Didn't part on the best of terms, but that was a few owners ago and 20 years ago. So who knows? There are Brad Larson, Dallas Eacons, Darryl Sutter, Gerald Galant, Gerard Galant, Peter Laviolette. Those are kind of the best known names out there. And then as far as general managers go, Calgary also let Brad Trebling go. So he is certainly available. Then you've got guys like who are assistant GMs at successful teams, Matthew Dorschay in Tampa Bay, Lawrence Gilman in Toronto, Jason Botterill with the Seattle Kraken who raised their game and made the playoffs in their second year of existence. It is always possible that if Lulamarello either retires or is let go, that one of them would be among the top candidates available. And then we all know Chris Lamarello. Still a possibility. We don't know one way or the other. And then right now Steve Pellegrini is the assistant GM, acting assistant GM with the Islanders. If Lulamarello decides, I don't want to be the GM anymore, but I'll be a special advisor or I'll be the director of hockey operations or the vice president in charge of whatever. He basically becomes something other than the acting GM. It's possible. He wants Pellegrini or Chris Lamarello in that role. So those are the options, but I will say this, the longer we go without hearing something, I think the more possible it is that Lulamarello is contemplating not being back. And this may very well be up to Lulamarello. It could be that management is leaving the decision up to him. Lulamarello is 80, it's not like he's been, you know, that he's, you know, 48 or 55. He's up there in years. He's in the Hall of Fame for a reason, but again, not hearing a week later, plus you start to wonder, are they giving Lulamarello some time to think it over? Are they going to interview with Lulam and then make a mutual decision? Is Lul trying to figure out what he wants to do or what he wants to do with Lulamarello? There are so many possibilities out there. And all I could say is stay tuned because again, this, what should be a very interesting off season is going to continue for the New York Islanders. And I think that's sort of the next big domino to fall and we'll see how it goes. We have got a lot more to get to on today's show. We are going to start our player by player review of this season. We start with the captain. It only makes sense. Anders Lee. So join us. We'll talk about Lee's season, the pluses, the minuses and what his future with the Islanders could be like all that and more. Still to come on this episode of the locked on Islanders podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Indeed. There's no I in team. But there is one in Indeed and that's the hiring platform you need to build yours when you're hiring you need Indeed. 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From the hottest players to the biggest upsets we've got you covered. Don't miss a beat this postseason locked on NHL available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts locked on podcast network your team every day. So let's start the off season with the captain Anders Lee and you look at the overall numbers for Anders Lee and you know they weren't awful I mean Anders Lee still finished the season as the New York Islanders third leading point getter with 50 second in goals with 28 and you know nobody else was you had Brock Nelson at 36 and then Zach Paris at 21 so it was you know Nelson Lee and then Paris and then everybody else below that so you know still second on the team in goals third on the team in points now again that in and of itself doesn't mean that Anders Lee had a great season but he still a very productive player and look he is I would say still in the late part of the prime of his career he's 32 he'll turn 33 in July July 3rd and you know he's at the age where he is starting to sort of slow down and we may have seen that late in the season now nothing was revealed about possible injuries for Anders Lee but clearly if you look at his numbers he started off the season a lot better than he finished it in the first 15 games of the year Lee had eight goals six assists at 14 points in the first 15 games and he was a plus one he had a three assist game against the Anaheim Ducks followed by four goals in four games including two in a loss in Florida against the Panthers so you know he got the season off to a really solid start and then at the end of the season the last 15 games two goals two assists and a minus five plus minus for the first 15 games 14 points eight goals six assists and a plus one and you know you start to wonder at that point being 32 and being a big guy six three two thirty five but a player who needs to be physical to be effective is age is he starting to get tired is he starting to wear down a little bit and if he is how does that affect the future for Anders Lee and oh look I got a an email Jeff from Alabama over the weekend he says Anders Lee in my opinion has been an outstanding captain on and off the ice over the past several seasons we have seen a few players who came to the Islanders organizations who were previous captains for their teams that they moved on from Andy Green and Zadayno Chara are examples do you think the addition of Bo Horvat at the trade deadline who was also previously a captain with Vancouver and then having him sign that very lucrative eight year contract extension do you think the Islanders leadership specifically looked into the future and could see Bo Horvat transitioning to be the next Islanders captain of course only if and when Anders Lee were to move on and he goes on Jeff's to say yeah he thinks that as long as Lee is there he will remain the captain what do you think well first of all Jeff thank you very much for the question and for listening every day always appreciate our every day or shout out to you look Anders Lee is the captain I think there were a lot of fans at least who toward the end of the season and in the playoffs and he only had one goal and no assists in those six playoff games wanted a little bit more from Anders Lee leadership wise I'll put it to you this way Anders Lee is not the raw raw kind of the leader where he's vocal you're gonna know you're gonna see him you know high-fiving guys and cheering them on outwardly no Anders Lee leads by example he gets everybody involved he is more of a subtle leader as far as the trade for Bo Horvat is concerned Bo Horvat is gonna be here for the next eight seasons according to his contract Anders Lee has three years left on his contract so overall I think Bo Horvat probably wears an A on his sweater this coming season and if Anders Lee is injured at some point I think Bo Horvat probably takes over as the captain and yeah if and when Anders Lee leaves the New York Islanders I do think Bo Horvat is a big time candidate to be the next captain but again and this is always part of the issue Bo Horvat has to perform better than he did this year and in the playoffs if he hopes to get everything you know to wear that seat so for Anders Lee we know what makes him effective Anders Lee had 28 goals I think if you added up the distance between where he was when he shot the puck and you know and the goal all 28 goals maybe 65 feet total I mean he usually scores from in close he's got good hand-eye coordination he tips pucks he gets rebounds he helps screen opposing goal tenders he is a very useful player in that regard but he's not fast afoot he and again you start to be concerned when he's 32 going on a 33 that if you're already a little bit below average speed wise and you get a little slower how does that affect your game now again this is something that a player can adjust to but will Anders Lee be able to adjust that is the question I have heard some people say maybe it's time to look at trading Anders Lee because he's going to start his decline soon his trade value is still fairly high I'm going to discuss that and a lot more concerning Anders Lee and his future with the team in our next segment we've got that and more still to come on this episode of the lock Don Islanders podcast today's episode is brought to you by built bar if you're looking for a delicious snack but don't want all the sugar and calories you need the best tasting protein bar ever you got to try built and if you're like me you want to make healthier snack choices but you don't want to compromise on taste go for the built bar they're healthy and they taste amazing you won't even believe they're good for you look all built bars are covered in 100% real dark chocolate and they come in great flavors my personal favorite is the cookies and cream you've got the churro the peanut butter brownie and so many more and look the macros are great they average just 130 calories per bar four grams of sugar just four grams of sugar but they have 17 grams of protein you can go to built calm and order any flavor you like have it delivered to your door but if you want to get a built bar right now you can head to Walmart or Sam's Club and pick up a box right away in person so that's all up to you but check out built bar the best tasting protein bar on the market go to built calm wall art Sam's Club you can thank me later so Anders Lee's future with the team I'll put it to you this way if Lula Marillo is back Anders Lee is almost certainly going to be back I don't think there's very much doubt about that if Lula Amarillo is not back and there is a general manager who wants to get this team faster younger and more skilled there are still some obstacles as far as trading away Anders Lee the first one to me is the big one he's going to be 33 years old before the season starts he is a 25 to 30 goal scorer but again starting to get to that age where you worry about decline and he's basically got a seven million dollar cap hit for the next three seasons so that's 33 so that's 33 34 35 each year you wait if you want to trade Anders Lee you get unless he has a really great season that even exceeds expectations you're going to get less and less for him as you go forward but the problem is to trade him you probably going to have to pay at least part of that seven million dollar salary and that limits the cap savings you would get if he stays on the team and I think he is more likely to stay than go I think that Lula Amarillo that Anders Lee ends up being ideally on your second line if the Islanders go out and get that sniping wing that we talked about them needing you have Anders Lee on a line with Brock Nelson and probably Kyle Palmeri and then your first line is more of a Horvat Barzal fill in the blank whoever the new player they're able to bring in is I think Anders Lee if he stays remains a top six forward he remains the captain and you know that is his most likely future and the if he stays make no mistake about it this is an Islanders team that was twenty second in the league and goal scored very low 30th on the power play they're going to need Anders Lee to get into the dirty areas wreak a little bit more havoc in front of that goal get those tips get those rebounds that's something they're going to have to do a Lee is going to have to do more of but I think he maintains that role it would be gutsy of either Lula Amarillo or the new GM of the Islanders if they were looking to trade Anders Lee you again probably maximize return for him if you do it this year but how do you replace those 28 goals you still have to replace the leadership and I know the inconsistency of this team last year made some people question Anders Lee's leadership but let's see let's see how the team decides to do things they need more consistency from Lee and they need him to be more aggressive in front of the net and utilize his size more to his advantage and make the adjustment to the fact that he's already below average skating ability or speed has you know maybe slow down even a half a step more he's got great balance and great strength but he's got to be able to to be able to do that in game 77 and not just game 17 and come playoff time he's got to be ready to do that as well this past year he wasn't really ready and that is a big concern for the fans and it's something that Anders Lee is going to have to improve on in the coming year. Alright time now for our Islanders birthday of the day and Sunday was the 46th birthday of former Islanders winger Brad is Bister is Bister drafted by the original Winnipeg Jets in the third round back in 1995 made his NHL debut for the Phoenix Coyotes as they were known then in 97-98 became an Islander in 1999-2000 spent three full years on the island and then part of a fourth was traded to the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline in 0203 is best year with the Islanders was his first year 22 goals 42 points 100 penalty minutes in 64 games he was a power forward 64-231 and you know he was the kind of guy who could get in front of that net and wreak a little havoc and defend his teammates and be physical played for the Oilers and the Bruins and then briefly the Rangers and Canucks before ending his career at the end of the 0708 season actually played a year in Switzerland before finishing it up 541 NHL games 106 goals 222 points and 615 penalty minutes played in 18 playoff games three of them with the Islanders and his only playoff goal came with the Isles one of his better games with the Islanders well this is an easy one January 6 2002 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta Islanders and Thrashers Garth snowing goal for the Isles Milan Lik in goal for Atlanta and it was Brad is bister scoring the second and third goals of this game including the game winner late in the second period on the power play as the Islanders beat the Atlanta Thrashers by a score of three to two Brad is bister six shots on goal in this game to lead the Islanders he did have the game winner and was a plus one in this game so again happy birthday to Brad is bister he is our Islanders birthday of the day we will be back tomorrow as we continue our player by player look at this team and hopefully you know we'll go down the entire roster before the the offseason is over so player by player we'll have that analysis I want to thank everyone for making locked on Islanders your first listen every day every day is tomorrow we will move on and we will talk about Scott Mayfield who is going to be an unrestricted free agent unless the Islanders sign him again so make sure you join us for that and we'll talk about his future coming up on that show as well until then have a great day everybody stay safe and of course let's go Islanders buying tickets to see your favorite NHL team shouldn't be stressful that's where game time comes in game time is the place for last minute ticket deals forget planning months in advance game time has deals on tickets right up to the day of the event get images of your seat before you buy so you knew exactly what to expect when you arrive you can buy tickets in a matter of seconds two taps in your set download the game time app great an account and use the code locked on NHL for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again redeem code locked on NHL for twenty dollars off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed a prime members you can listen to this locked on podcast and free on Amazon music download the Amazon music app today hello Nick's fans I'm Gavin Shaw host of your daily New York Nick's podcast locked on Nick's part of the locked on podcast network your team every day locked on Nick's brings you the latest Nick's news and analysis and breaks down all of the action locked on Nick's is everything a Nick's fan could want all in one thirty minute daily podcast so subscribe now to locked on Nick's wherever you get your podcast search locked on Nick's and get your daily New York Nick's podcast locked on podcast network your team every day