Mathew Barzal Out Indefinitely With Lower-Body Injury

The Islanders announced Monday that forward Mathew Barzal will be sidelined indefinitely with a lower-body injury. Defenseman Scott Mayfield will also miss some time with an LBI, although he’s only listed as day-to-day.

Barzal, 27, left Saturday’s overtime win over the Lightning in the third period and did not return after taking a Darren Raddysh slapper to the knee. He skated off under his own power, but he remained out of the lineup in yesterday’s loss to the Panthers as he underwent further evaluation.

The Isles will now be without their highest-paid player for an extended period for the second time this season. He missed 21 games with an upper-body injury in November and December, missing roughly six weeks.

When in the lineup, Barzal has disappointed offensively in 2024-25. He’s shooting at a career-low 7.7% rate en route to a six-goal, 20-point performance through 30 appearances. His 0.67 points per game are third on the team but rank as the worst of his career over a full season, below 2018-19’s 0.76 mark.

Barzal is in the second season of the eight-year, $73.2MM extension he signed in October 2022 with a $9.15MM cap hit. He provided strong value in the first year of the deal, hitting a point per game for the second time in his career in 2023-24, but has continuously seen a dip in his shooting accuracy. He has a 22-team no-trade clause that kicked in last July and remains in effect for the life of the deal.

After spending the first six seasons of his career as a center, continued faceoff struggles and the acquisition of Bo Horvat from the Canucks in 2023 have bumped him to the wing. Injuries everywhere on the Islanders’ roster have meant a rotating cast of linemates for Barzal this season, spending significant time with Horvat, Anthony Duclair, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

Duclair and Lee, as well as Kyle Palmieri and Maxim Tsyplakov, will comprise the Islanders’ top-six winger group in Barzal’s absence. Most of them have had decent campaigns aside from Duclair, who’s been limited by an early-season leg and injury struggled to get off the ground with eight points in 23 games after signing a four-year, $14MM deal in the summer.

The Islanders’ seven-game win streak came to an end in Florida, but they’ve managed to get back within four points of a playoff spot despite injuries to Hudson Fasching up front and multiple on the blue line, namely their top two righties in Noah Dobson and Ryan…