It is telling, in retrospect, that the first comments Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello made regarding Noah Dobson after the team signed the young defenseman to a contract extension last summer, laid down a marker for him to hit.
“We have to see more with Noah and he has to continue to grow the way he did [in 2021-22],” Lamoriello said last August. “So we certainly would have loved to get any player as long as we can for the right cap and the right price. And I think we have to see a little more from Noah to make that long-term decision.”
Another season has come and gone, and the Islanders still need to see that growth from the 23-year-old.
His top-line numbers were not all that different from the breakout campaign that earned Dobson a three-year, $12 million deal — he had 49 points this season after 51 in 2021-22 — but it’s fair to say the Islanders wanted more from him.
Coach Lane Lambert generally felt the need to shelter Dobson, putting him on the third pair and trying to keep him out of the defensive zone, while the top power-play unit Dobson quarterbacked was a consistent problem all season.
At five-on-five, Dobson’s playing time took a dip by 1:25 per game, and in the playoffs, he was benched for a chunk of the third period of the Game 5 win over the Hurricanes.
To be clear, no one is hitting the panic button.
Dobson is still just 23 and is capable of scoring around 50 points even in a down season, so there’s not much reason to think a year of stagnation will break a development curve that has trended upward.
But there is no doubt about the importance of this summer.
“I think I’ve always had the confidence,” Dobson said at the team’s breakup day. “I just thought sometimes things came easier or things came harder at different times. There’s times where I’ve been playing well but you weren’t getting results and there’s times where you weren’t playing great, but you’re getting results with that stuff. There’s ebbs and flows — I’m excited where I am and excited I have room to grow and still keep getting better as a player.”
But Ryan Pulock, who is five years Dobson’s senior and has gone through his own set of ups and downs, conceded that the young defenseman’s confidence might have wavered throughout the season.
“A lot of times, I feel like with a player like himself being a skilled, offensive guy, a lot of it can depend on your confidence and how you’re feeling that day,” Pulock said. “Sometimes, it’s tough to get back. You have to work that much harder to get it back. You have to focus that much more on the little things, on the game, maybe away from the game that can help you.
“Maybe he wasn’t his best all season, but he’s still young, he’s still growing, he’s still learning. I’m still learning every year. I think it’s important for him to just regroup this summer, get ready for next year, whether it be off the ice getting stronger, just focusing mentally on the right things.”
The Islanders need to see Dobson develop enough on the defensive end to trust him with top-four minutes.
The anticipated pairing of Dobson and Alexander Romanov, also 23, was split up early in the season and rarely played together again.
The fact Adam Pelech and Pulock are a shutdown pair when put together means the Islanders’ optimal defensive setup includes the two 23-year-olds alongside each other.
It’s also easy to see how their games could complement each other on paper.
Dobson can move the puck and drive offense.
Romanov likes to hit and can handle tough shifts in the defensive zone.
But that needs to translate to the ice.
“I think he’s a really good player,” Dobson said of Romanov. “He brings an element that not a lot of other guys have with the physicality, but he makes plays as well. I’m excited. Hopefully, we can continue to grow and build off one another and keep building that chemistry.”
