Ondrej Palat Is Quietly Winning Over Islanders Doubters

Plenty of Islanders fans wanted Ondrej Palat gone, and few predicted he'd become one of the forwards Pete DeBoer leans on this fall. Eight games in, that skepticism is looking shaky.

Why the doubt made sense

Start with the context. Mathieu Darche acquired the two-time Stanley Cup champion from New Jersey in February, and Devils fans were happy to see his $6 million cap hit leave town. Palat had been a valued piece during Tampa Bay's championship runs, but by the time he arrived on Long Island he looked like a fading version of that player.

He did score in his Islanders debut. Then the goals dried up. He looked slow and ineffective, and he rarely made much of an impact on the games he played. Buyout talk was loud over the summer. A buyout would have meant carrying dead money against the salary cap, and that's a real cost, but plenty of observers felt it was a cost worth paying to move on from a contract that wasn't producing.

That's why the early returns matter. Darche chose to hold on, and his familiarity with Palat from Tampa Bay may have played a part in that. Whatever the reasoning, patience is starting to look like the right call.

What the scoresheet says, and what it doesn't

Don't expect Palat to be leading the team in points. He has one goal and one assist through eight games, and that's not the profile of a player carrying an offense. Here's the thing, though: the underlying numbers tell a more interesting story.

Palat leads the Islanders with a 63.5% Corsi For percentage at even strength, which measures the share of shot attempts generated by his team while he's on the ice. That figure sits nearly five percentage points ahead of teammate Matthew Schaefer. Corsi isn't a perfect measure, and eight games is a small sample that can swing hard in either direction. Still, a top-line result on that metric suggests the Islanders are controlling play when Palat is out there, and that's more than many expected from him.

Shot-share numbers can also reflect the players around a forward, so it's fair to ask how much of this is Palat. The answer will come with more games. For now, the trend is consistent enough to take seriously.

Saturday showed the pattern

In Saturday's 4-1 win over Toronto, the Islanders outshot the Maple Leafs 19-1 with Palat on the ice. That single number is an extreme one, and it shouldn't be treated as a season-long average. But it fits a broader picture: when he's on the ice, the Islanders are pushing play in the offensive zone and keeping the puck away from their own net.

That's the kind of impact that doesn't always show up in a box score. A forward who keeps possession and creates pressure can help a line even when the goals and assists are slow to arrive. Coaches notice that work, and it's often what determines who gets the minutes in tight games.

DeBoer's read and Palat's offseason

Head coach Pete DeBoer offered a clear view after the Toronto game. "Right from training camp, he's been engaged. He wants more," DeBoer said. "It's on me to give him a little bit more. He's been that good."

That last point is worth noting. A coach taking responsibility for giving a player more usage is a sign of trust, and it tends to follow a player who has shown he's ready for it. Palat has politely declined to say what he changed in his offseason preparation. That's his call, but whatever he did appears to be working, and his effort level has been noticed inside the room.

What this does and doesn't change

Let's be clear about the limits. Nobody is suggesting Palat is suddenly worth $6 million again, and eight games don't erase a difficult season. The contract is still the contract. What's changed is the on-ice conversation: the question has moved from whether he should be moved on to whether his play can hold up over a full season.

That's the real test. Teams in this spot usually want to see a player's numbers stay steady once the early-season sample grows and opponents start game-planning for him. Watch whether the shot-share edge holds through a stretch of tougher matchups, whether he keeps finishing chances at a higher rate, and whether DeBoer keeps trusting him in the late minutes. If those things continue, the Islanders will have gotten far more out of a veteran than most of their fans expected.