The three best remaining landing spots for Free Agent Mike Hoffman

2. New York Islanders

Life is sweet for the New York Islanders right now who have been transformed into a plucky contender by the formidable brain trust of General Manager Lou Lamoriello and Head Coach Barry Trotz, while their state-of-the-art arena at Belmont Park nears completion.

However, every team with championship aspirations have flaws and, in the case of the Islanders, their main ugly bugaboo is their goalscoring.

Yes, the Isles boast an elite talent in Mathew Barzal who can change the game in an instant with a mind-boggling piece of skill or by using his elite hockey IQ, but even the star center has sacrificed some of his natural game for the good of the team.

Ranked 22nd in the entire NHL in Goals For Per Game during the 2019-20 regular season (2.78), the Islanders did propel themselves to fifth in the postseason, averaging 3.00 Goals For Per Game.

But we saw in the Eastern Conference Final against the Tampa Bay Lighting that the Islanders simply don’t have the firepower to go and slug it out against the most offensively loaded teams in the NHL.

That has to change if they are to take that next step and transform from contenders into winners.

And, in need of more offensive support for the likes of Barzal, Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle, the New York Islanders could do a lot worse than by signing Hoffman to a one-year, prove yourself deal.

After all, the 30-year-old ranks 20th among forwards in goals per game (min. 400 games played) since the 2014-15 season, while he is also 16th among forwards in power play goals per hour since the start of the 2017-18 season.

Given that the Islanders ranked 24th on the PP (17.3) during the 2019-20 regular season, they could certainly do with a luxury weapon like Hoffman on the man advantage.

After all, if you don’t have good special teams in the National Hockey League, then you aren’t going to succeed and it is as simple as that.

Overall, for a team that is positioned nicely to really challenge the NHL’s elite over the next few years, adding a prolific lighter of the lamp in Mike Hoffman could prove to be the piece that really pushes the New York Islanders over the top.

Granted, the Islanders would need to move a piece in order to bring Hoffman in given that they still need to sign RFA Mathew Barzal to a new deal but, if they can somehow create the necessary cap space, Hoffman would be a smart signing by the front office and would address a very real and glaring need.