As players arrive on Long Island with training camp just over a week away
(Sept. 13), we have begun to see the culture change that president of hockey
operations and general manager Lou Lamoriello promised when the New York
Islanders brought him onboard May 22.

With the Islanders missing out on the playoffs for the second consecutive
season, the long offseason makes it feels like the team hired Lamoriello ages
ago but he too prepares for his first season with the Isles like so many
others. With so many new faces on and off the ice, new questions have arisen as
 well and training camp/preseason should provide some answers to those
questions.Who Starts in Goal?

For the past three seasons, Robin Lehner has done his best at stopping pucks
for the Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately for him, that meant being the starting
goaltender for the last-place team in the NHL and that did no favors to his
statistics or record. Now, on a one-year deal with the Isles, the 27-year-old
netminder gets another chance to prove himself.

Having been the starter in Buffalo, Lehner seemingly has the advantage over the
 32-year-old Thomas Greiss, who has been a career backup goalie excluding
stints as the Isles'; starter in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.

Lehner enters training camp with a 72-97-35 career record accompanied by a 2.82
 goals-against average (GAA), a .915 save percentage (SV%), and eight shutouts
and is coming off a 14-win year with the Sabres (3.01 GAA, .908 SV%, three
shutouts).

Signing on to a three-year extension worth $10 million back in January 2017,
the Isles have expected a lot more out of Greiss than what they have gotten.New
 York Islanders goaltender Thomas Greiss (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Last season, Greiss managed a not-so-bad 13-8-2 record, but without the Isles';
 high-flying offense in front of him, there could have been a lot more losses
than wins on his record. He finished the season with a 3.82 GAA a .892 SV%, and
 just one shutout but his statistics in seasons prior suggest a bounce-back
year.

Not only do statistics suggest it but so does a change in Greiss';s offseason
routine. He went back to working with goaltending guru Adam Francilia, who also
 helps train Devan Dubnyk (Minnesota Wild) and Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg
Jets) amongst others.

Coming out of training camp, it may very well be that the Islanders don';t have
 a clear-cut number one netminder. During the 2015-16 season, the Islanders
switched off between Greiss and Jaroslav Halak and last season the team played
the hot hand whether that was Greiss, Halak, or even Bridgeport Sound Tigers
call-up Christopher Gibson.Can Brock Nelson Take the Next Step?

There has never been a better time for Brock Nelson to shine. With John Tavares
 gone, everyone is most likely getting bumped on the depth chart, and that
leaves Nelson with the opportunity to center the team';s second line. In
addition, after avoiding arbitration and signing a one-year this summer, Nelson
 is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 so he is playing
for a new deal as well.Islanders center Brock Nelson (Tom Szczerbowski-USA
TODAY Sports)

Nelson is a consistent 20-ish goal scorer but a very streaky goal scorer at
that. For example, in this past campaign, five of his goals came right off the
bat in October but it took him until January to score another five. To be fair,
 the 26-year-old didn';t truly get the best opportunity to succeed. Often
playing third-line minutes with rotating wingers that changed on a nightly
basis, it is definitely understandable to see why Nelson lacked consistency.

With the expected upgrade, Nelson should be playing with pretty skilled
players. Judging by my predicted lines for this upcoming season, he could be
centering a line of Anthony Beauvillier and Josh Bailey. There';s a lot of
skill and talent to work with there. Nelson has the accurate wrist shot, Bailey
 has the passing skills and vision, and Beauvillier is hybrid of the two with a
 knack for finding rebounds and putting them into the back of the net.To Be or
Not to Be Reunited? The 4th-Line Dilemma

Barry Trotz has the pieces but will he put the puzzle back together again? On
July 3, the Islanders re-acquired Matt Martin from the Toronto Maple Leafs and
have reunited the trio that made up their highly-praised fourth line (Martin,
Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck) from 2014-2016.Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck,
and Casey Cizikas. (Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)

Their hard-hitting, high-energy game is adored by fans and players alike, but
is it really what the Islanders need? Bringing this line back together will
likely be keeping some pretty skilled players out of the lineup. There likely
won';t be enough room for Valtteri Filppula or Josh Ho-Sang, about whom Trotz
has nothing but good things to say.

"Josh has to be part of our future," Trotz told Trotz told Stan Fischler of MSG
 Networks. "He's a talent who needs to be understood better than he has been.
In this case, Lou will be good. My belief is that the kid has been
misunderstood because he looks at the game differently."

Filppula scored 11 goals and 33 points this past season. Out of the three,
Clutterbuck came the closest to Filppula with eight goals and 18 points. This
also potentially keeps several others out of the lineup, including Kieffer
Bellows and Tom K├╝hnhackl.Can Mathew Barzal Handle the Pressure?

Perhaps the biggest and most important question is if Mathew Barzal can
successfully take over as the team';s number-one center. I say successfully
because the role is his for the taking but the question is how well he will do
in it.

The Calder Trophy winner (awarded to the NHL';s rookie of the year) put up 85
points in 82 games and three five-point nights to lead the team in scoring but
was also sheltered from some of the league';s top defensive-minded forwards and
 top-pairing defensemen because they were preoccupied with John Tavares and the
 first line.Mathew Barzal (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Now, every player on every team has his number, and after a year of watching
Barzal skate circles around them, they';ll always be sure to know where he is
on the ice. He';s speedy and he';s crafty, but can he be stopped? We have begun
 to see teams figure out Ho-Sang';s antics by pressuring him in his own zone
before he gets a chance to break out. Will Barzal be able to adapt when players
 begin studying film and finding ways to shut him down?

This likely won';t be a question that the preseason will answer for us. Players
 are just getting back into the swing of things and the top players typically
don';t give these exhibition games their 100 percent effort. But early on in
the season, we should get a pretty good idea of what Barzal is going to be
capable of as the team';s new number-one center.Where Does Jan Kovar Fit in the
 Equation?

On July 9, Lamoriello and the Islanders took a well-calculated gamble by
signing Jan Kovar to a one-year deal, one-way deal worth $2 million. Kovar has
never played professional hockey in North America before but the center has
scored 286 points in 285 KHL games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk as well as three
 goals and five points in six games with the Czech Republic at the Olympics
this past winter.

While the deal seems like a great one - and it very well may be just that - it
is worth noting that Kovar scored just seven goals and 35 points in 54 KHL
games last season. The best part about the deal for the Isles is that Kovar is
waiver-exempt, meaning that if the Islanders wanted to, they could send him
down to the AHL without any risk of losing him to the other 30 clubs. According
 to Andrew Gross of Newsday, Lamoriello sees the 28-year-old as a "top-nine"
forward for the team.New York Islanders forward Jan Kovar (David E. Klutho-USA
TODAY Sports)

This seems like a great low-risk, high-reward signing for the Isles but really,
 the risk is for Kovar. Several other teams were interested in him but he chose
 the Islanders realizing that they offered him the best chance to live out his
dream (playing in the NHL) and that they were the best fit for him.

"Jan was looking for the best fit for his style of play, a great coach and
opportunity," Kovar's agent, Allan Walsh, told Gross. "It's always been his
dream to play in the NHL and now he's getting ready for the challenge of
adjusting to the smaller ice and helping bring his team success."

But just one season ago, we saw a similar situation in Las Vegas. At the time,
the Vegas Golden Knights only had one player in their organization, prospect
Reid Duke. Then, on May 4, 2017, they signed Russian free agent Vadim
Shipachyov to a two-year deal worth $9 million.

Like Kovar, he had never played in an NHL game and because he was waiver-exempt
 and didn';t exactly wow at training camp, he was sent down to the Chicago
Wolves of the AHL before the season even started. Fast-forward to November, and
 after playing just three games and scoring one goal with the Golden Knights,
Shipachyov was out the door and on his way back to the KHL as he and the team
agreed to terminate the remainder of his contract.

With so much change this summer, there will be a lot more to figure out than
what this story provides, and perhaps even more storylines will arise from
training camp. For now, these are some of the few you should be looking out
for.

The post New York Islanders Preseason Storylines appeared first on The Hockey
Writers.

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