Let's examine Ryan Strome's production over his career.





Since the 2013-14 season, there were NHL 21 forwards who played a significant number of minutes of 5v5 with reasonable zone-starts and have done well in terms of both Fenwick and points/60 rate.





Criteria (with Strome's stats in parentheses):

played 2000+ minutes at 5v5. (2340)

Fenwick of at least 52.5 (53.2) and Rel 1.5 (2.1)

Ozone starts advantage of less than 5 (34.4-32.0 = 2.4). So this excludes forwards with heavy O-zone starts, such as Tavares, Lee, Tarasenko, Seguin, Kucherov, Pacioretty, etc.

Points-per-60 at 5v5 during 2013-16 seasons:

2.71 Crosby

2.42 Getzlaf

2.36 Perry

2.20 Wheeler

2.13 JThornton

2.12 Jagr

2.09 Marchand

2.03 Bergeron

2.00 Kopitar

1.99 Perreault

1.95 Steen

1.93 Pavelski

1.91 Jokinen

1.90 Oshie

1.82 Hagelin

1.80 Strome

1.80 Backes

1.80 Hertl

1.76 RSmith

1.73 Frolik

1.70 Eriksson

The forwards who are 2.0 and above are All-Stars, but even the forwards within 0.10 of Strome are quality forwards, regularly slotted into 1st and 2nd line roles on their respective teams.

Time on Ice:

Furthermore, Strome accomplished this while being tossed around the lineup more than most others, even from wing to center and back to wing. His TOI these seasons at 5v5, in minutes, with his 10 most common linemates:

768 - Nelson

701 - Lee

632 - Tavares

484 - Grabovski

383 - Nielsen

301 - Martin

280 - Kulemin

257 - Bailey

220 - CMcDonald

170 - Clutterbuck

5v5 Goals For/60:

But has this resulted in the Islanders scoring more goals? Yes, it has. At 5v5 in 2013-16 Isles scored goals at a better rate at 5v5 with Strome than with any other Islander on the ice (per-60):

2.95 Strome

2.90 Tavares

2.72 Okposo

2.56 Lee

In fact, that rate is 19th among all NHL forwards, ahead of NSH with Forsberg at 5v5, PIT with Malkin, CGY with Gaudreau, FLA with Jagr, and TBL with Stamkos.... Strome was a good player to have on the ice at 5v5 the previous three seasons, if you wanted to score goals.

And it wasn't all garbage-time goals either that Isles scored with Strome on the ice. Strome's GF60 Close (within one goal first two periods, and tied in 3rd) was 2.93 over that span, tied with Pavelski and Patrick Kane for 14th among forwards with 1500+ minutes.

It seems counter-intuitive (to say the least) for a team that is struggling to score goals to choose to scratch Ryan Strome, even as he struggles to produce offense this season. Of all the current Islander forwards, Strome is arguably the second most talented forward at 5v5, behind John Tavares.