The New York Islanders are a pretty good team with pretty good young talent, and two of their young stars are center Mathew Barzal and right-winger Joshua Ho-Sang. Now many people think that the former, the latter, or both will have fantastic rookie seasons, and there is a huge debate within the Islanders fan base: Who is better?

Let’s take a glimpse at why each are young stars and can even win the Calder Trophy, which is awarded to the rookie of the year.

Joshua Ho-Sang

• He’s fun to watch. Really fun. Ho-Sang plays with a lot of speed and skill while on the ice for the Isles. He just seems to have so much fun playing hockey, and he loves scoring goals. That’s always nice.
• He was already introduced to the NHL for a few games last year, unlike Barzal, who played in only two games where he basically did nothing at the start of the season before being sent back to Seattle. Ho-Sang had four goals and 10 points in 21 games at the end of last season in a top-9 role on the Isles.
• He is playing with very talented linemates. The projected line is what is being called the “Breau-Sang” line with Ho-Sang and Anthony Beauvillier on the wings of center Brock Nelson. Beauvillier has silky smooth hands and can finish goals almost as nicely as JHS does, and when trying, Nelson is a 25-goal scorer. That line could do magic on the ice. He is also projected to play on the first power-play unit with…

Mathew Barzal

• His linemates aren’t that bad either. Barzal is projected to play on a line centering Andrew Ladd and last year’s first-line right winger Josh Bailey. Even though Ladd had a poor start to his Islanders’ career, expect him to step it up alongside Barzal and Bailey.
• He’s impressing in training camp and in the preseason. Barzal has six points in four games. SIX. He’s showing off his speed and hands in the best way possible just like Ho-Sang is. After Barzal had the incident in the penalty box in his NHL debut, he was sent back to Seattle and was a monster point producer. He had ten goals and 79 points in 41 games.
• He was one of Edmonton’s few mistakes of the current decade. Hey Peter Chiarelli, thanks for Barzal and Beauvillier for Griffin Reinhart. Barzal was picked with the 16th pick which was acquired for now Vegas Golden Knight Griffin Reinhart, and he is looking like a steal for the Islanders.

So… who deserves it more?
Can we give the Calder to both of them? I wish, but if I were to say who deserves it more, I would say Mathew Barzal.

SEF