Casey Cizikas

The decision on the players in Hamilton waiting to be brought up to the big club, Aitchison, George, Eiserman, Prokhorov, will clearly be influenced by the performance of the Islanders by the midpoint of this season, and how quickly the organization will attempt to unload any players of potential value before the trade deadline in March, when they truly go into a rebuild mode.

Assuming the Islanders are hovering at the bottom of a possible playoff spot in late December and have not shown to be dominant, I feel Darche needs to reexamine the performance of specific players, Duclair, Palat, Schenn, MacLean, Palmieri, Mayfield, Cizikas, during the early 2027 timeframe, and identify those individuals that can be potentially traded while they have value, making these moves earlier than the March trade deadline.

Can you, uh, provide your thoughts on this approach?" First of all, John, thank you for the kind words.

Thank you for the question.

But assuming we get to that point, yes, I would maybe try to get a jump on some guys.

But, see, here's the key.

Some of the guys you mentioned, a Palmieri, a Cizikas, uh, if they are indeed going to be traded, maybe a Pelech or a, a Duclair, some of these guys, if, if they are going to get traded, their value goes up when you get closer to the trade deadline, because teams are desperate to add that last piece of the puzzle.

And, you know, specifically, like, if you're looking to trade a guy like Kyle Palmieri, who's in the last year of his current contract, who is more likely than not not coming back to the Islanders next year, although, again, w- maybe he goes on a tear and, uh, but let's assume he's not coming back to the Islanders next year.

He's looked really, really good so far to start the year off.

Uh, Casey Cizikas, you know, was decent enough.

And then, um, Matias Maccelli had a point on the power play.

Uh, it was a beautiful pass over to Horvat, who sh- scored that one.

I mean, honestly, Palat, I have no complaints about Palat either.

Uh, who would've thought I'd be saying this the way I talked about Palat all year long or all off-season long? Uh, the fact I don't have a complaint for him, I think he played a great game today.

Cizikas, you know, was fine.

Michelli turns the puck over a lot, uh, but that is just his style of game.

And I think if you're looking for those, you know, we've had a lotta coaches say you just wanna see at least two guys on every line have that good connection.

I think, I think we're honestly starting to see it with Ondrej Palat and Casey Cizikas, which is kind of a nice development on that fourth line.

Yeah.

You know, Casey, Casey's boys have m- have been gone for a little while now.

But then on top of that, just watching the Islanders build a system, like game in and game out.

And, and lastly, at the end of the day, you're gonna need like veterans like Casey Cizikas and Brayden Schenn, um, and like to, to help lead this group of Islanders team, you know, like, you know, back to being, you know, like playoff contenders again.

And I think it definitely starts with being consistent and building the system that they're trying to establish in Long Island.

Casey Cizikas is just an ageless wonder with two more goals-

Yeah

... uh, tonight.

You know, we saw that heavy slap shot come out a couple of times, um, you know, a couple on goal.

Uh, ended up, I think he got Casey Cizikas in the back of the, back of the leg on one of them, uh, as well, which definitely, uh, stung him for a little bit.

So, you know, obviously you, you see the potential of what that first unit can be.

You just want them to figure it out and just start scoring at some point.

I love it.

Palat, Cizikas, Duclair, final note on the game last night.

I think Palat actually looked a lot better, and I'm hoping he can just be a solid fourth-liner defensively.

put up 25 or something points.

Remember, we talked about the nine-center roster depth yesterday.

Casey Cizikas, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Bo Horvat, Kyle Palmieri, it's a sea of centers.

Losing Barzal forces the coaching staff to lean into that depth chart rather than relying on one superstar to create magic.

It makes us harder to play against because we don't need a hero, we need a system.