Heart and soul. That’s what Brendan Witt means to the New York Islanders.

Sure, he doesn’t score goals and isn’t the best player on the team on paper, but as far as representing what this team is all about, Witt is the undisputed champion of grittiness. If blocking shots, pissing off the opposition and taking the body could make someone a superstar, then Witt would be a bigger star than Sidney Crosby in this league.

When he was in the lineup this season, the Islanders were a different team. They played with more passion, more determination and they rarely lacked focus. You hear all these stories in the news how important a guy like Sean Avery is to the Rangers, but I think Witt may be an even bigger piece to the puzzle for the Islanders. This guy not only draws penalties, he eliminates guys from plays by using his body and rarely takes a bad penalty. If the rest of the team played with as much resolve, they’d be in the Stanley Cup finals right now.

Not an amazing skater, Witt is fueled by pure will and never gives up on a play. Anyone who has seen Witt play against the likes of Evgeni Malkin over the past two years could totally attest to that. He just seems to own the guy. He’s hit the guy so much since he came to the NHL that you could make a highlight film on it if you really wanted to. However, Malkin isn’t the only player in the league that don’t like to play the Islanders because of him. Simply put, Witt is the Islanders cavalry. He’s their first and last line of defense against the best players in the league. Again, without him, you’d have a much different team out there.

Combined with Radek Martinek, the Islanders have one of the best defensive tandems in the league. Without them, this team would have been lucky to win 30 games. However, considering their lack of offensive luster, they’ll never be regarded as a top-tier pair. For that reason, I really believe the Islanders would consider giving guys like Chris Campoli, Bruno Gervais and Jack Hillen more playing time, so they can develop into the defense of the future.

Nevertheless, a guy like Witt should and will get the majority of the playing time against the best players in the league. He’s too damn good defensively to be played anywhere else and considering how much younger the Isles will be next year, they really can’t afford to not play him in crunch time situations. That means that if he’s healthy, Witt should be making funny faces at refs and getting sucker punched all season.

If you don’t know by now, now you know. That’s great news for the Islanders.