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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Simon Holmstrom made a subtle yet strong first impression in his rookie season. He was just 21, yet the fanbase had already resigned themselves to the fact that Holmstrom would not be a big part of the team’s future.
Little was expected, and the game he displayed wasn’t either. Rather than help the Islanders generate more offense, he was most valuable as a responsible, two-way forward playing with and learning from JG Pageau and Zach Parise.
He understood that it was essential to earn the coaching staff’s trust and that, as a young player, you needed to pick your spots. Even as Holmstrom insisted that his offensive skillset was the best part of his game, he wouldn’t take uncalculated risks to force things and be a liability on the ice.
“We get a lot of defensive zone starts. He comes in, he has a smile,” Pageau said of Holmstrom in The Hockey News. “He wants to do the job, wants to do it right and be hard [to play against]. Zach [Parise] had the same mentality. So I think Homer definitely makes me better, too."
Holmstrom made the opening night roster to start his second season and added another unexpected dimension to his game - penalty-killer and short-handed goal specialist. Of his seven goals, three have come short-handed this season.
He’s on a 20+ goal pace but has zero assists through 22 games. That’s hard to do and despite the goal total, has fans debating his viability as an offensive player. Some say he created space for Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat on the first line; others feel he looked out of place and was a non-factor.
It’s hard to say with any certainty what type of player he can become or where his ceiling may be long-term. He seems most comfortable next to Pageau, and if he ends up being a 10-15 goal score that 30-40 points a year, so be it, but don’t be too quick to put a cap on his production just yet.
He continues to surprise us at every turn, slowly peeling away and unveiling parts of his game we weren’t sure were there. So, for now, let’s withhold judgment about what he is and isn’t because if you, he continues to surprise us, even if it isn’t happening on our timetable.
