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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
There are players who divide fanbases simply by existing, and Simon Holmstrom is one of them. Some see a first-rounder who settled into a fourth-line life and never broke out — a safe, predictable role player in a league that rarely rewards safe and predictable. Others see something else entirely: a 24-year-old with the feet, brain, and touch to be a 20-goal, 50-point Swiss (Swede)-Army forward who can live anywhere in the lineup and make a line better by being on it.
The irony, of course, is that for years the Isles were starved of exactly this kind of player. They were a franchise built on bottom-sixers, asking lunch-pail guys to masquerade as top-sixers because there was nobody else. Now the problem has flipped — too many top-nine fits, not enough pure fourth-line identities — and Holmstrom is the one giving Patrick Roy the migraine of good problems.
His usage tells the story. On the fourth line — six games, zero goals, two assists, four shots. Invisible isn’t fair, but anonymous is close. Elevated to the third line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anders Lee — two games, two goals, one assist, five shots, and suddenly his name is being announced again. Chemistry is real, and Pageau practically wrote his testimonial: “He’s definitely more comfortable… we communicate a lot… he’s been a big part of our success.”
