Ross Johnston has been a pain to watch when he has been in the Islanders’ lineup this season, but head coach Barry Trotz keeps playing him.

Johnston suited up for three consecutive games between March 29 and April 3. He was a minus one with no points and 17 penalty minutes, including a ten-minute misconduct against Washington and a five-minute fighting penalty against the Flyers.

In fact, Johnston is second on the Islanders in penalty minutes as of April 6, behind only Mat Barzal, who took a ten-minute misconduct against the Capitals in January. Johnston, unlike Barzal, has only played in nine games and never received more than 11:15 of ice time in a single game.

Now that the Islanders traded for Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, this is not an issue. However, Kieffer Bellows should be playing over Johnston in every scenario. He got that chance on March 27 against the Penguins after Michael Dal Colle was injured during a 4-3 win against the Boston Bruins two nights earlier. However, he was a minus one in that game and Trotz replaced him with Johnston for the next three games.

So why did Trotz, who seemingly hates when players take penalties, keep putting Johnston into the lineup? Perhaps it’s because he appreciates Johnston’s toughness.

However, he only fought once this season. He had 16 penalty minutes in the Islanders’ second game against the Rangers and none of them were for fighting (four were for roughing). Trotz also has Matt Martin, who’s played in all 38 games this season and has recorded 11 points with only 23 penalty minutes. Martin also has the ninth most hits so far in the NHL this season.

Johnston should only be playing in dire circumstances as there are other players in the system who are far more deserving of his ice time. Let’s analyze them below.

Kieffer Bellows

Trotz should loosen the leash on his young winger whenever he can.

Trotz hasn’t given Bellows much leeway this season. Bellows was performing well on the first line after Anders Lee’s season-ending ACL injury, scoring three points in three games. But Trotz yanked him from the lineup after his fourth game, a 4-3 loss against the Flyers on March 18, in which he took a penalty. His next chance was the aforementioned game against Pittsburgh.

With Palmieri and Zajac on the team, Bellows will get less playing time. However, he still should be getting the nod over Johnston.

Austin Czarnik

Ever since impressing in his fist game with the Islanders against the Flyers in January, Czarnik has gotten little playing time in the Islanders’ lineup.

When Trotz has played him, he’s been on the third line. That means that he’s comfortable with J-G Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom. He can also win faceoffs, having won over 58% of his draws this season. If the Islanders need to throw out an extra center late in the game in case someone is thrown out, Czarnik is more than capable of doing that.

Like Bellows, Czarnik is a speedy forward who can compliment the third line far better than Ross Johnston can for the Islanders. Hopefully, Trotz will start feeling the same way.

Ben Baruch

Born and raised on Long Island. Isles fan since 2009. Studying journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.