Expectations were high for Mathew Barzal after coming off a Calder Trophy-winning rookie season with the New York Islanders in 2017-2018. He put up a massive 85 points cake walking to the award.
Last year, he wasn’t nearly as productive. To be fair, pretty much everyone outside of Casey Cizkas and Brock Nelson saw their production go down but the 23 point difference (85 down to 62) was a significant step backward production-wise.
First of all, the Islanders style of play was much different in the Barry Trotz system. When Doug Weight was their coach, just a year prior, the defense was an afterthought and they were a high-powered offensive juggernaut which is what helped Barzal put up that massive rookie season.