In about a year’s time, Ryan Strome has gone from the next great Islander, coming off of a 50-point rookie campaign, to a lost player. Strome has spent time in the AHL this season and is currently a healthy scratch during important playoff games for the Islanders.

The question is, what has changed between last year and this year?

His stats have clearly dropped off as evident by this screenshot from nhl.com, but why?

While there is a tangible drop off in statistics, the real issue with Ryan Strome seems to be his confidence and lack of hustle. Last year, Strome was grinding on every shift as if he wanted to earn his spot on the team. That hard work translated into an outstanding rookie season, and sky-high expectations going into his sophomore campaign.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue1ihT7-1Kg]

As his rookie highlights show, Strome was skating hard every shift and earning meaningful minutes with the top line.

Fast forward to this season, Strome is expected to be the winger that the Islanders have needed since they drafted John Tavares first overall in 2009. That did not last very long as Jack Capuano sent Strome down to Bridgeport for three weeks at the very beginning of the season. Strome struggled with his confidence in Bridgeport, but eventually made his way back up to the bigs.

Upon getting back in the lineup, Strome was able to play well for a game or two at a time but never got back to his old form. Strome struggled to find a niche and has been healthy scratched in favor of players with less talent on numerous occasions.

The most notable scratches were in both rounds of these playoffs. In the first round, Strome was scratched for the series-clinching game in favor of Josh Bailey. Due to Bailey’s injury in that game six, Strome got another chance during games one and two against the Lightning.

Strome was a star in game one, collecting two assists to Shane Prince and appearing to gel perfectly with line mates Prince and Nelson. Aside from the assists, Strome was a force on the forecheck and their line cause chaos whenever on the ice. Strome did not play terribly in the Game 2 loss, but was ultimately scratched once more for Game 3 in favor of Bailey, again.

The up and down year lead to many question marks for Strome’s future with the team. Will he become the player he was destined to be? Will he turn into another Josh Bailey? Or will he find success with another team?

Let’s hope its the former of the three questions and Strome can be an integral part of a championship team in Brooklyn one day.

Featured image via islesnation.net

Stats via NHL.com

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