Anthony Duclair reunited with former coach Patrick Roy on Islanders

When Anthony Duclair was a 15-year-old in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, he thought his path lay through college — and he held no bones about telling interested teams in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League just that.Patrick Roy, then the coach and general manager of the Quebec Remparts, wasn’t so easy to blow off.“Pat still decided to draft me,” Duclair said Monday at the Islanders charity golf outing.“It’s tough to say no to Patrick Roy as a 15-year-old kid trying to make the NHL.”Duclair ended up playing for the Remparts.

And, evidently, it was just as tough for him to say no to Roy as a 29-year-old NHL veteran, as Roy was instrumental in convincing Duclair to sign a four-year deal as a free agent this summer.Duclair arrived on Long Island for his first training camp with the team a couple of weeks ago and has been taking part in veterans’ skates with the team since then.When training camp opens on Thursday, Roy said the plan is to have Duclair join Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat on the top line — a reunion of sorts for Duclair and Horvat, who were roommates as 17-year-olds for Team Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.“I know Bo really well, just crossing paths with him when he was at Vancouver, playing against him, obviously a real solid 200-foot player,” Duclair said.

“A guy you can rely on in any situation.Just another guy I’m really excited to play with and learn from.”As for Barzal?“Superstar in this league.

Has been since he entered,” Duclair said.“Just obviously playing against him, seeing what he does, night in, night out, how much passion he has, just the compete level, too.

A lot of those superstar players really love to compete and he’s one of those guys.”Adding a scoring winger to play alongside the pair of stars was the priority for the Islanders in the offseason.Duclair, who scored 24 and 31 goals in his last two fully healthy seasons and brings speed that can keep up with Barzal, should fit the bill.Duclair has als...