New York Islanders: Analyzing Anders Lee’s career 400 games in

His role the next 400.

The thing about history is that it often repeats itself. This is more or less applicable to the Islanders.

They once won four cups in a row, then they would go on near decade long playoff droughts. They are great in waves and they stink in waves. That is where Anders Lee comes in.

As the role of Anders Lee’s first 400 games has been to be reliable, healthy, scores goals, and to eventually captain the hockey team, his role in the next 400 can be more or less the same. Right now, the Islanders are the only team that can give him an eight year deal. This is something they should consider doing.

Not solely on the merit that the next 400 games could be like the first 400, but for other reasons too. The Islanders are about to go to the playoffs. It will be their first time doing so in two years. While Lee does not have a lot of playoff experience, there is one way to get some.

But in order to get there, the Isles need to build a sustainable roster and we know what the Islanders have in Lee. With Lee they Isles could lock him up and have a player who they know will stay healthy and be a workhorse and have a player who has been through just about everything you could imagine with this tumultuous franchise.

Also, Lee is 28 years old now and still has some prime ahead of him. If Lee can be the player he has been, and he averages over half a point a game in his career, and remain an offensive asset, then that is a wonderful thing.

Not to mention he would likely be the captain again and continue to play a role as a leader on and off the ice.

Overall, 400 games is a solid sample size. I’m not looking at game logs of 10 games and making assumptions, that would actually reflect poorly on Lee. He is a player who the Islanders know what they have in.

There are no guarantees with pending free agents, there are no guarantees with prospects who may come and go. Through 400 games, we know Anders Lee is darn good. We know the Isles and those who call the shots respect him. A known is more valuable than an unknown.

And while anything that can happen will happen, Lee has been a staple for this franchise. He has been nothing but loyal, he was even loyal to Garth Snow when literally no one else was. There will players who play 400 games who will blow Lee out of the water, but for once let’s focus on how many players who will be way worse after 400 games.

Things are trending upward for the New York Islanders in just about every single aspect of an organization. I would imagine for the next 400 games the Islanders wouldn’t want much to change. Maybe, just maybe, Lee has used his first 400 to get to this point.

It already feels like yesterday Lee played in his first NHL game in the Coliseum against the Jets. 399 games after it still seems crazy.

But if he can do similar things for his next 400, that might just be crazy enough to have an outstanding career in this league. Oh, and you can’t spell “Islanders” without “anders.”