You can hear the arguments now.

The Islanders suffered more injuries than anyone anticipated. Mat Barzal played just 30 games. Anthony Duclair rushed back and wasn’t the same after going down early in the season — now he’ll have a full summer to recover. And their blue line wasn’t healthy until mid-March. 

Even after trading Brock Nelson, the Islanders banded together and finished the season strong. The prospect core is plenty bolstered with Cal Ritchie. There’s no big changes needed — only better luck and perhaps an addition to the top six.

This, after all, is only a slightly modified version of the case made to stick with the group a year ago, when a full season of Patrick Roy behind the bench plus a couple new additions — Duclair and Max Tsyplakov — along with a healthier defense (whoops) was meant to result in serious improvement.