The NHL season is starting to ramp up, and for teams like the New York Islanders, the year has been tough to start, but just around the corner is opening night at UBS Arena. After looking at each of the Islanders 2021 NHL Draft selections, let’s start taking a look at prospects around the world that were drafted prior to 2021, starting with one of the fastest-rising players in the system in William Dufour.

Dufour was drafted by the Islanders in the fifth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, when he was still playing for the Drummondville Voltigeurs, after a mid-season trade from the Chicoutimi Saguenéens. At that point, he had played for three QMJHL teams as he started his career with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. He spent the entirety of the shortened 2020-21 season with Drummondville, scoring at a strong, over a point-per-game pace, with 17 goals and 29 points in 23 games.

Prior to the 2021 QMJHL Draft, the Voltigeurs traded Dufour to the Saint John Sea Dogs along with a 2022 fourth-round selection (originally owned by the Acadie–Bathurst Titan) in exchange for the Sea Dogs’ first-round selection in this year’s draft, a fifth-round selection in 2023 and forward Simon Hughes.

Dufour has had a strong season for the Sea Dogs, scoring 15 goals and adding 12 assists for a total of 27 points in 17 games to begin the season, and he is only heating up as after scoring 10 goals and 18 points in 12 games in October, he already has five goals and nine points in the month of November, including the attached highlight below of his second of two goals against the Shawinigan Cataractes on November 12.

William Dufour 🤝 scoring goals pic.twitter.com/c1pZc7ipYL

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) November 13, 2021

Dufour has become a highly-touted prospect in the Islanders’ system who has a bright future ahead of him. Look for him to spend the rest of the season lighting it up in the QMJHL before signing his entry-level contract prior to June 1, 2022, when the Islanders lose his rights.

SEF