ELMONT, N.Y. — The Connor McDavid assignment when the Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders meet has fallen to Adam Pelech, McDavid’s old OHL teammate, the last few years. Pelech has burnished a reputation as one of the better shutdown defensemen in the NHL and the McDavid challenge is the biggest on the calendar.
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But Pelech is out. So is Ryan Pulock, traditionally Pelech’s top-pair partner. Ditto Scott Mayfield, who has been one of the better defensive-zone Islanders.
That left Noah Dobson to face the McDavid train. Without fanfare — and honestly, is there any other way an Islander does something deserving of league-wide notice — Dobson had put together a first 30 games that have been as good as the two defensemen most often discussed as Norris Trophy candidates, the Canucks’ Quinn Hughes and the Avalanche’s Cale Makar.
Dobson came into Tuesday’s visit from the Oilers third in the league among defensemen in assists (27) and points (32) and fourth in plus-minus (plus-17) — that last stat is as flawed as they come, but in this case represents how Dobson, who leads all NHL defensemen with 21:30 of even-strength time on ice per game, is controlling play when on the ice.
All those pretty numbers can go out the window in the face of Edmonton’s No. 97, who brought an 11-game point streak into UBS Arena. He left without a point in 24:54 of ice time, thanks in large part to Dobson, who was with McDavid every step of the way in a crucial Islanders 3-1 win.
“This is probably the most impressive game he’s had for us,” Anders Lee said. “He’s grown into the role of being an all-around defenseman, one of the better ones in the league with his offensive skills but tonight was a great example of the other side of it. He was hard on their top-skill guys, strong and poised with the puck in the D zone. He made those little plays that helped us break the puck out and that goes a long way.”
Dobson’s evolution from 12th overall pick in 2018 to part-time player in 2019, on to a bottom-pair regular alongside aged, savvy veterans Andy Greene and Zdeno Chara to now, when he’s quarterbacking a power play that converted twice on Tuesday to get to 26.4 percent, top-six in the league, as well as leading the league in even-strength ice time has been a jam-packed journey over four-plus seasons.
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It’s easy to forget The Dobson Plan that Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz instituted back in the 2019-20 training camp. Dobson was coming off a second straight Memorial Cup, playing 30-35 minutes a night for Rouyn-Noranda of the QMJHL. He’d done all there was to do as an amateur but at 19 couldn’t play in the AHL, so the Islanders put him on a regimen of practice, weight training and the occasional game. That plan altered with injuries — one to Pelech — and Dobson ended up playing 34 of 68 games, but only one in the 2020 bubble playoffs.
“It was definitely an adjustment, frustrating at times for sure,” Dobson said. “But I just kind of put the trust in those two guys who have been around for a while, obviously world-class hockey minds with everything they’d accomplished. And looking back, I probably wasn’t fully ready to be an everyday D-man and be the player they needed me to be. It’s good to learn. I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by some great veteran guys too — (Johnny) Boychuk, (Dennis) Seidenberg, Greene, Chara. To be able to learn from those guys in the early years, it was incredible.”
Dobson has always had the stamina to play big minutes, but big NHL minutes are obviously different from big junior minutes. The mindset that it takes to be almost an every-other-shift player, though, never leaves.
“I think he enjoys it,” Lane Lambert said. “I think he enjoys the fact he can get out there in all situations. Players like that want to be on the ice.”
Noah Dobson uses his reach against Leon Draisaitl. (Brad Penner / USA Today)Dobson didn’t gamble against McDavid on Tuesday. He used his reach and solid positioning to do what the best defensemen do against McDavid, which is to anticipate and cut off McDavid’s avenues of escape, which are usually too many for one opponent to solve. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl still got to the slot plenty and the Oilers were dangerous, especially in the first, but Ilya Sorokin had one of his best nights of the season, as did Alex Romanov, who has been no slouch in stepping up alongside Dobson as the team’s only go-to defense pair.
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“He’s playing against the two best players in the league and he’s not getting beat,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “He’s always in the right position, has a good stick on puck. I’ve seen him grow the past couple years and we all know how good he is with the puck offensively but he’s really improved his defensive game. It shows the commitment he has and the effort he brings, that he wants us to win.”
The heavy minutes will continue, surely starting with Wednesday in Washington. Pelech and Mayfield have been skating but Pelech at least is still a ways away from returning; Pulock was on crutches at UBS Arena on Tuesday and he hasn’t been back on the ice since being injured two weeks ago.
So there are no other options. And Dobson is embracing it. That’s another reason why he should be in the Norris conversation — Hughes and Makar aren’t doing extra work. And the Islanders, with Dobson at the wheel on defense, are 7-2-3 without Pelech and 4-1-1 without Pelech and Pulock.
“Those are three significant guys who play a lot of minutes for us,” Dobson said. “It’s just kind of a mental thing, you step up and have to handle those minutes. It’s been good so far.”
(Top photo: Gregory Fisher / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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