There were glimpses last year of just how talented Josh Ho-Sang is, and just how bright his future could be with the Islanders.
But the team is demanding more than just glimpses from the superlative 21-year-old winger as he prepares for his second pro season, with some previous immaturities now left in the past.
“His attitude has been good, his attitude was good last year,” head coach Doug Weight said before Ho-Sang was solid in the Islanders 3-0 preseason win over the Devils at Barclays Center on Monday night. “He needs to be walked through certain things. I think he knows his flaws — he has too much fun out there at times. That’s what he kind of admits to. He’ll kind of get off the page once and a while.”
Trying to reel in his talent was the reason Ho-Sang started last year with AHL Bridgeport, finally getting called up in March for what would be a 21-game NHL debut.
It started well, with three goals and six points in his first eight games. His speed, stick-handling ability and vision were wonderfully apparent.
But then he went through what Weight called “a lull of decision-making,” finishing the 21 games with four goals and 10 points — but learning quite a bit along the way.
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“He constantly wants to see, wants to learn, wants to sponge, and those are all good things,” Weight said. “To this point, I think he’s ready to take that step.”
Ho-Sang infamously overslept during his first go-around at training camp in 2015, when general manager Garth Snow made him run up and down the steps at an empty Nassau Coliseum as punishment before sending him back to his junior team in the OHL. When he didn’t make last year’s team out of camp, it was a disappointment for him, but not exactly a shock considering that the Islanders still wanted to see him mature.
He put his head down in Bridgeport and worked, scoring 10 goals and posting 36 points in 50 games. Yet the biggest change has been for Ho-Sang to realize when he can run around taking risks to make spectacular plays and when he needs to just make the simple, smart play.
In a league that is incredibly structured, that can be the difference between winning and losing. It’s something that Weight is trying to get out of Ho-Sang, and something he knows he needs to work on.
“I think that’s when you have to think outside yourself, not necessarily what you like to do on the ice and what you’ve been allowed to do your whole career, reading the game,” Ho-Sang told The Post. “In junior, my coaches there were like, ‘Josh, relax.’ Here, you’re not getting that because it’s not Dougie’s job to manage my game. I’m a professional athlete. Obviously his job is to manage the team. For me, I know that full well and I just have to try to accommodate him and everything as much as possible.”
With the addition of talented winger Jordan Eberle this summer, and with another young up-and-coming player in center Mathew Barzal, there is quite a bit more talent on the Islanders this season than there has been. Weight knows that, but doesn’t want it to get to anyone’s head.
“We’ve got three dynamic players if they end up making our team in [Barzal, Ho-Sang and Eberle],” Weight said. “Great hands, deceptive, can find people, hockey-sense, decisions — that we haven’t had on this team in that aspect. But we have to make sure we’re getting back the next nine or 10 days to that warrior-type attitude, competing, and we’ll do that in practice.”
So Weight knows Ho-Sang has all the offensive talent anyone could ask for, but he wants more. He wants him to be an everyday player and contributor, and both player and coach believe that transformation has started.
“This is preseason, this is where you kind of push the envelope and see what works and doesn’t work,” Ho-Sang said. “You want to hit the ground running.”