The early arrivals to Long Island for informal Islanders skates are normally veterans, players with families that need to get settled in the area or ones with fairly certain roles on the team once training camp begins a week or two down the road.
Mathew Barzal does not fit either category. Yet there was the 19-year-old earlier this week, skating in drills coordinated by Eric Boulton, the unofficial leader of these unofficial workouts, and whipping the puck around in mini-games alongside Josh Bailey, Travis Hamonic and Johnny Boychuk.
“I’ve skated quite a bit this summer, last two months I’ve been going pretty hard,” Barzal said.