The New York Islanders are unlike any National Hockey League franchise. The players truly are like family and with Josh Bailey playing the role of your favorite uncle; the guy you always could talk to and laugh with a lot.

Josh Bailey never invited me to dinner; but I love him just the same.

You would, too, if you -- as I did -- covered The Bailey Years at Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum, Barclays and, most recently UBS Arena.

The Islanders are unlike any National Hockey League franchise. The players truly are like family and with Josh playing the role of your favorite uncle; the guy you always could talk to and laugh with a lot.

In Yiddish the word for Bailey is mensch, which is just an easier way to say super-duper guy who you'd never want anything bad to happen to.

But "bad" is happening to him now and since I've known Bails for a good 15 years I feel twinges of sadness about his fate as a big-leaguer; which is not so good.

READ MORE: Bailey Opens Up About Tough Season, Future With Islanders Anything But Certain

The once redoubtable right winger is never going to be shooting goals nor setting them up for our favorite team anymore. That's pretty much definite. A season of 64 games and 8-17-25 will do that.

All you have to do is remember how this once clutch performer was virtually a forgotten man in the homestretch. It was a big deal when he finally got back on the ice as the Wild Card was clinched. It was a nice little bit; but a little late.

That was that. Not once was Bails employed in the six-game playoff set against Carolina; not that he would have made much of a difference in the final outcome.

But, then again, you never know.

What we do know is that Lou Lamoriello and Lane Lambert very much wanted to win that tourney and they didn't figure that Bailey would help. So he sat in civvies and rooted for his buddies down there wishing them well because that's what a mensch like Josh would do.

As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember that character was a prime factor in Garth Snow's mind when he twice traded down in 2008 so that he could obtain the former Windsor Spitfires Junior hockey star in the Entry Draft.

All things considered it was a reasonable pick. The Coyotes selected Mikkel Boedker one ahead of Snow and nobody in the Isles camp wrung hands in dispair over that.

The thinking was that Bailey would be one of those all-around forwards whose 200-foot skill would match his overall character.

And then we waited to see if this flower would bloom and, frankly, it took a bit longer than anyone in Islanders Country would have liked, but, no matter.

Bailey eventually turned into a pretty good player -- no more no less. His best red light season was 2017-18 when he potted 18 goals over 76 games and added 53 helpers for 71 points in what was a non-playoff year.

But in the 2019-20 postseason he tallied 20 points (2-18) in 22 games and became more admirable than ever.

"The thing with Josh," one longtime fan told me, "was that he never got over that hump and became a really, really big star."

And that's why he occasionally was chided in song and ripped on social media.

But Bails never would get ripped by me. Never. Win or lose, he always was there for a post-game interview -- more than I could say for John Tavares -- and always was insightful and the good guy personified.

And -- I might add -- has been to this very sad end to an honorable Islanders career.

Whatever happens, you have to wish him well. Bails did his job to the best of his ability and never was one to hiss or moan over adversity.

Okay, so he never hit the heights; that we all know. But there's no denying that Josh Bailey was a first-class member of the Isanders family through and through.

This is one mensch I'll miss!