Metro Notes: Barzal, Lafreniere, Bezeau

The New York Islanders could get one of their best forwards back from injury at some point soon. Head coach Peter DeBoer told the media today, including Stefen Rosner of The Elmonters, that the team is hopeful Mathew Barzal will be able to return to the lineup without much further delay. Barzal has been skating as he works his way back from a knee injury that has delayed the start to his season. The Islanders host the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow, and a return for that game might be too early. But the club’s next game after that is against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, and if he can keep progressing, perhaps Barzal could be an option for that contest.

Barzal, 29, is arguably New York’s most talented and accomplished scoring forward. The 2017-18 Calder Trophy winner led the team in scoring by a wide margin last season, putting up 19 goals and 72 points in 81 games. No other Islanders player even reached the 60-point plateau. A natural center, Barzal has begun to play more along the wing in recent years, in part due to the fact that New York has been able to boast impressive center depth since its acquisition of Bo Horvat. The Islanders currently have four natural centers in their lineup behind Horvat, but only three slots at the position to play them in. Once Barzal returns, that number will increase to five. It seems the most likely outcome for Barzal will be that he joins New York’s second line and is centered by either veteran Brayden Schenn or top prospect Calum Ritchie.

Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:

• New York Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere was named the NHL’s third star of the week today, drawing further attention to what could be a breakout season for the 2020 No. 1 overall pick. Lafreniere entered the league as a massively hyped prospect who most observers viewed as a surefire future star scorer. While Lafreniere has been a productive middle-six winger so far in his career, he hasn’t been able to deliver on that kind of star-level upside. But so far this season, Lafreniere has already produced eight points in seven games, and has hovered near a point-per-game scoring rate since the team traded away its former No. 1 left winger, Artemi Panarin. While it’s certainly still a small sample, there appears to be a growing body of evidence to suggest Lafreniere could finally be starting to realize some of the upside that made him such a highly regarded prospect.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets announced today that forward Riley Bezeau has been activated from his injured, non-roster designation, and has been reassigned to the club’s AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. Bezeau suffered an undisclosed injury during the team’s rookie camp, per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, and missed the entirety of training camp. An undrafted forward, Bezeau joined the Blue Jackets organization last summer on a one-year AHL deal. The team signed him to an NHL deal this past summer. He scored five goals and seven points in 24 AHL games during the 2025-26 season, racking up 74 penalty minutes in the process. Alongside his activation, Bezeau was named one of the team’s alternate captains for the year today.