Our logbook series continues today with a look at Adam Lowry who has established himself as a strong defensive forward that can help make other players around him better to a degree, but going forward into next season could maybe use a little bit of help of his own.

You can find a list and links to logbooks for other Jets this season by checking out the prologue.

This past season was the first year of a three year, $8,750,000 deal signed on July 19, 2018 with his cap hit at $2,916,666. Lowry will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract expires July 2021 (Source: NHLNumbers.com)

Lowry continues to be a reliable player on the Jets bottom six forward group, typically playing on the team’s third line. His offensive numbers did pick up a little bit this season which was more a product of him being able to stay healthy as he was only in 45 games the season before compared to the 78 he played in this season. His point per game average took a pretty big hit though dipping from .466 in the 2017-18 season to this season’s .295 mark.

Adam isn’t exactly leaned on for providing scoring as it’s his defensive play that has kept him a regular in the lineup. As you can see above, he started a lot more plays in the defensive end of the ice especially in the last third of the season when the Jets struggled with overall team defense and zone exits. Lowry is ok at helping move the puck out of his own zone, but where he really shines is being able to limit any scoring chances down low and in front of his own net both playing even strength 5 on 5 and on the penalty kill.

Lowry’s reliability does mean he usually sees a little bit of variety in his linemates, but as you may have noticed there was one constant in his life: Brandon Tanev. Until his hand injury late in the season, Tanev and Lowry were about as exclusive a line pairing as Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler were. Other linemates – Andrew Copp, Mathieu Perreault, Bryan Little and even Patrik Laine for a handful of games – were tried out and a lot of it again had to do with Lowry being a steady performer on the ice and one that could actually help his teammates.

Make note of two players on this chart, Lowry’s “TLC” linemates Copp (circled in black) and Tanev (circled in green). Both of them saw improvements in their own game when they played with Adam, with Tanev’s being quite a dramatic swing. To be fair Tanev’s 143 minutes without Lowry is a small sample size, but it’s hard to imagine Tanev posts the career numbers he did this season without the steady influence of Lowry on the ice with him.

One other note to make from his past season is that Lowry did receive a two suspension early in March for a stick swinging incident.

It’s hard to say that this season was an outright disappointment for Lowry – he was as reliable as any Jets through the course of 82 games. His offensive game struggled and he wasn’t given time on the teams power play as he had been in previous seasons, mostly due to more offensive minded optioned being available to Paul Maurice. Next season could be an interesting one as he may be without his primary linemate Tanev who could be lost to free agency. Andrew Copp could (or at least should) also get a look as the team’s second line center. As we’ve seen, Lowry doesn’t seem to have any issues carrying his own line, but it would be nice to see some help for him on the wings to get his offensive game back on track.