Noah Dobson Deserves To Get Paid

Business is business, but the New York Islanders better give Noah Dobson a significant raise.

Dobson is coming off a career year with the Islanders that saw the 22 year old surpass the 50 point mark for the first time in his career.

So how much do 50 point a year defensemen make at the National Hockey League level?

That’s the question every organization and cap crunching personnel want to know!

In the case of Noah Dobson, a player of his skill, reliability and presence, you would think that the Islanders would want to sign him long term and make him the cornerstone of their backend moving forward. Nevertheless, the Islanders may choose to take another route. The Isles may elect to offer the pride of PEI a bridge contract, with the allure of signing “the big deal” two years down the road.

Obviously, we have seen these types of deals before and they do make sense from a business standpoint, but what about the player?

Dobson has gone above and beyond, he’s done everything the organization has asked of him and more. This is a perfect opportunity for the Islanders to show the player that they ultimately value the impact he has had and will have on the organization moving forward.

Contracts are all about value in the salary cap era, but again that goes back to the previous question, how much is a 6’4 right shooting, three zone defender worth? I’ll let you do the research and let you do the math on that one, but let’s just say a lot of money and not too many players.

For some reason Barry Trotz and Isles brought Dobson a long extremely slow. They would say their experiment has worked, but what message does that send to their stable of prospects or draft selections moving forward?

“Come to the Island and we will take it slow, so you can grow”?

Noah Dobson was more than ready to play a larger role with the club the last two seasons, but wasn’t given the opportunity to log big minutes in every situation really until the playoffs a season ago.

It’s shocking really that the hockey scribes in the New York market wrote so much about Dobson coming of age and developing this season. Clearly they have no clue what they have in Noah Dobson the person and player. It’s like give your head a shake. You have a stud defensemen at 22 years old, that can play in any situation, that’s durable and reliable and yet everyone is surprised by his success? Come on people, Noah Dobson deserves to get paid like the player he is. His first 50 pt season isn’t a fluke, it’s not a flash in the pan, he’s going to do it over and over again. This is only the beginning. Forget about a bridge deal, pay the kid what he is worth, lock him up long term.

It’s highly unlikely the Islanders will do that which is just mind blowing to me.

Every organization values players differently, it’s time the New York Islanders value their future cornerstone on defence.

Noah Dobson deserves to get paid.