Isles’ Mathew Barzal combines All-Star talent with team-first mentality

SAN JOSE, Calif. — This past March, as the Islanders were nearing the end of another disappointing season that eventually brought an organizational overhaul, it became clear Mathew Barzal was their shining beacon of hope. He was pretty much a shoo-in for the Calder Trophy at that point, but even before he went on to win it, he was thinking long term.

“At the end of the day,” he said back then, “it’s a career and I don’t want to just be a one-season guy.”

Barzal, the lone Islanders representative for All-Star weekend, has backed up his great rookie campaign with a stellar sophomore season.

Though it didn’t start very fast for the 21-year-old under new head coach Barry Trotz, it did pick up, and he has accumulated 14 goals and 45 points in the first 49 games. He was the team’s most deserving player to get this honor, and it was the next step in his own internal narrative.

“There are certain things you want to check off that at the end of your career you can look back and say I accomplished this and did that,” Barzal told The Post shortly before the break began, with his team surprisingly in first place in the Metropolitan Division. “But right now, when you’re in the present and the moment, you’re worried about the season. We’re having a good season right now. I just want to get to the playoffs.

“You can have all those individual [awards], but at the end of the day, I don’t want to be a guy that goes to play 15 years and makes the playoffs three times, you know? I want to be in there consistently.”

It’s that team mentality that seems to be the first thing on everyone’s mind when discussing Barzal. For a player with such prodigious talent, what makes him tick is trying to win the Stanley Cup. That was reiterated by first-year team president Lou Lamoriello, who came aboard after having discussions with now-relieved general manager Garth Snow and his assistant, Lamoriello’s own son, Chris.

“Anybody I spoke to prior to coming here within the organization — whether it be Garth, whether it be my son Chris — no matter who it might be, they said [Barzal] was really a good person,” Lamoriello told The Post. “So my preconceived notion was I was going to find somebody who wasn’t cocky, didn’t have an ego. That was my thought and that’s what it was. So I can’t say I was surprised, but I was pleased.”

The acquisition of Barzal was one of Snow’s best moves. He traded first-round bust Griffin Reinhart to the Oilers in exchange for first- and second-round picks in 2015. At No. 16 overall, they selected Barzal out of WHL Seattle, and he still remembers setting goals while playing for that junior team — which included winning the Calder and being an All-Star.

“It’s obviously been a goal of mine, both of those things,” he said. “But three years ago, I was still in junior, I would have told you I’m just trying to get in the NHL. I want to be a regular.”

Barzal is more than regular. He has become the face of the franchise, whether he thinks that way or not. With captain John Tavares leaving this summer to sign with his hometown Maple Leafs, the spotlight turned to Barzal.

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But he has approached the season like he’s any other player and was receptive to Trotz’s system that put more emphasis on defending. In turn, the Islanders drastically went from dead-last in the league in goals against (3.57 per game) to first (2.41).

“I’ve been extremely impressed with him, especially at the age he’s at, with the success he had certainly last year with the Calder Trophy. Just seeing how he’s handled the change, handled putting more emphasis on defense,” Lamoriello said. “He’s been receptive to anything and everything and is as good a team player as you could want. He’s happy for his teammates, he loves the game, he wants to be good.”

Now he’s rewarded by being put on a stage with the best players in the game, with him singling out Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux as examples. He’s not far behind them, either.

“It’s pretty cool just to be quote, unquote All-Star,” he said before he was reminded that there’s no need for the quotes. “But to just be there with guys like Crosby and Giroux and just the top of the league. I don’t put myself in that class, so for me to be playing with those guys and be at an event with them, it’s pretty special for a young guy like me.”