Islanders’ Anthony Duclair takes a leave of absence

Islanders winger Anthony Duclair is out indefinitely after taking a personal leave of absence from the club, head coach Patrick Roy told reporters Thursday (including Stefen Rosner of NHL.com).

Duclair wasn’t at Thursday morning’s practice. After the Isles dropped a 4-1 game against the Lightning on Tuesday to extend their winless streak to six, Roy called Duclair’s performance postgame “God-awful” and said he was “lucky to be in the lineup.” 

Thursday, Roy told the media that “Anthony and I had a very good conversation, a very positive one, and Anthony asked me to take some time off and reflect. So, obviously, I agreed to that, and we’ll give him all the time that he needs.”

The 29-year-old simply hasn’t meshed on Long Island and with Roy, his head coach from his junior days with the Quebec Remparts. He negotiated himself a four-year, $14M deal last summer to join the Isles on the opening day of free agency and even started the year on the top line alongside Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat. 

A leg injury sustained in his fifth game of the season derailed his campaign, though, keeping him on the sidelines for two months. Horvat inferred Thursday that Duclair had also sustained a groin injury — either on the initial play or during his recovery — that’s bothered him since his return.

As a result, Duclair’s production has been the worst of his career, even when grading it out on a per-game basis. He’s scored just 7-4–11 through 44 games with a -15 rating, the worst among Islanders forwards, while averaging a shade over 15 minutes per game.

Now in his 11th NHL season, Duclair’s shown the ability to be a strong complementary top-six winger when given other offensive weapons to play with. He excelled down the stretch in a top-line role for the Lightning last season after they acquired him from the Sharks at the deadline, posting 8-7–15 in just 17 games. 

He’s three years removed from a career-high 31-goal campaign in Florida, splitting time on the Panthers’ first and second lines that year. New York hoped he could provide that level of production in a first-line role, but injuries — not just to him, but to their shallow group of top-level offensive talents — have taken away that dream, at least for 2024-25.

With three years left on his deal, a reset in the relationship between the organization and Duclair is paramount. He carries a full no-trade clause through the 2025-26 campaign, although beginning July 1, 2026, Duclair can only block a move to 16 teams.

With eight games left in the Islanders’ season and their playoff chances down to 2% (per MoneyPuck), it stands to reason that Duclair is done for the year. That should mean extended top-six opportunities for wingers like Simon Holmström and Maxim Tsyplakov over the last couple of weeks of the campaign.