Mat Barzal Is Not Worth $9.15 Million
Yeah. You read that correctly. I don’t think Mat Barzal was worth the $73.2 million extension he signed with the New York Islanders.
In early October, Mat Barzal signed an 8-year extension worth $9.15 million AAV. Barzal needs to be consistently putting up 90-100 points per season. He has never hit that. In 2018-19, he put up 85 points but hasn’t come within 20 of that since. Barzal can make plays and carry the puck for extended periods of time, but this is National Hockey League. That’s not an uncommon skill.
Sure, you could say that there’s not enough talent surrounding and supporting him. And I don’t disagree. They have a very defense-heavy mindset right now and I think that needs to change. There’s only so much that Kyle Palmeri and Zach Parise can do. Barzal and Parise played together fairly often last year. In just over 400 minutes together, they were on the ice for 18 Islanders goals and 18 opposing goals. Lane Lambert has stated that he really likes them together along with Kyle Palmeri. You can expect this to be a common trio this season.
“I think they read off each other well…we’ve talked about the chemistry between Parise and (Barzal), and the work ethic of Zach and his being able to read off of Barzy. Palmieri is a shooter, and he’s a power forward. … It’s an ongoing process, but I like what I’ve seen of them so far.”
Lane Lambert- Islanders HC
Will Barzal raise his play level to that of Crosby, McDavid, MacKinnon, or Matthews?
I saw Mat Barzal play twice this month. One game versus the Ducks, and the other versus Colorado. In both matchups, Barzal was playing a very average game. The Islanders came out of both of those games with 2 points but Barzy didn’t have a goal in either one. And they won 7-1 versus Anaheim. Did I yell something at an old man at the Avs game when he said MacKinnon wasn’t worth his contract extension? Yes. I did. Loudly and proudly. But that is neither here nor there.
Last season, his numbers were much better at the end of the season than at the start. Hopefully, he’ll grow into this new financial situation by next season when it takes effect. I’m not saying that he’ll never be worth this much money, I just think that Lou Lamoriello got a little ahead of himself. I would have waited at least until the middle of the season before I even started talking about this. Barzal is not a consistent enough player for big decisions to be made this early.
