MORRISVILLE, N.C. — The course charted by Noah Dobson over the first five seasons of an NHL career that has reached stardom this season started with sitting in the press box by design.
That plan for Dobson’s rookie season came as a product of the CHL/NHL agreement that prevented the Islanders — who felt the 2018 first-round pick had outgrown junior hockey — from assigning him to the AHL as a 20-year-old.
So put him on the NHL roster, the plan being for him to use the year to develop as a healthy scratch.
It didn’t quite go the way Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz envisioned it — Dobson ended up playing 34 games as a product of injuries elsewhere on the blue line — but for long stretches of that season, his job was solely to soak up information.
“It was definitely good. I think at times it was frustrating, maybe didn’t see the bigger picture, but in the end it worked out,” Dobson told The Post after the Islanders practiced Friday. “I trusted the guys that were making those decisions. I’m happy with how I’ve come along. They brought me along slowly and developed and I feel like each season I’ve taken steps and gotten better.”
The Islanders have taken immense care with the development of Dobson, who will turn 24 in early January.
Not only did they sit him as a rookie, they played him the next year alongside veteran Andy Greene, then the year after that alongside future Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara.
When Dobson seemed to stagnate last season, Lou Lamoriello made sure to back him publicly, saying he had taken too much criticism.
That has all culminated this year in a campaign that will end up putting Dobson on Norris Trophy ballots if it keeps going this way.
Going into the pre-Christmas finale in Carolina on Saturday, Dobson has 33 points in 32 games and has averaged 25:42 per game, helping the Islanders get through injuries to four different defensemen.
“I don’t want to say I’m surprised because I felt all along with the God-given ability he has and also the personality he is, as far as what he went through that first year,” Lamorielo said Friday. “We really sacrificed a year on both sides — the organization and him — because junior hockey would not have been good for him and we could not send him to the American League. And he accepted that and accepted all the tough times going through that type of process. In my opinion, each year he’s gotten better and better.”
Looking back on that first season, Dobson knows he’s come a long, long way.
“I was in a pretty sheltered role there where you’re playing minutes against the bottom six and no special teams. That’s what I needed as a young player,” he said. “Sometimes you get thrown into the fire and you can lose your confidence pretty quick.
“They slowly brought me along, made sure I was getting put in the right situations. I’ve definitely taken strides, big strides, my first year to now. I felt like that was my thing, I wanted to keep getting better, taking strides each game, each year.”
The idea of individual hardware has not yet crossed Dobson’s mind, he said.
But among defenseman, he is currently behind only Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar in points.
He is also leading all defensemen in time on ice per game at five-on-five, while usually drawing the toughest matchup.
That is a good way to become the first Islander since Denis Potvin to win a Norris Trophy.
Dobson, though, doesn’t even feel like he’s become the best version of himself.
“Not at all,” he said. “I feel like I still have lots of areas where I can continue to grow. That’s exciting to me. I felt that going into last summer where I was excited to work on things and improve in areas. I still have that same mindset, I don’t think that’ll ever change. If you watch the top end guys, each year they come in being better at something they were before.”
Now, most people would include Dobson in that category.
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