The Islanders are back in action tonight against Florida and have made several roster moves in advance of that contest. The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Anthony Duclair was placed on LTIR while Liam Foudy was assigned to AHL Bridgeport. With the cap savings from those two moves, the team has signed veteran winger Matt Martin to a one-year contract and recalled wingers Pierre Engvall and Hudson Fasching from the minors.
Martin has spent all but two of his 15 NHL seasons with the Isles, becoming a key member of their fourth line along the way. It looked like the two sides would part ways over the summer when he was told that he wouldn’t be offered a contract. However, when he hadn’t reached a deal heading into training camp, Martin signed a PTO with New York, allowing him to play and practice with them for the preseason. No contract came along then but he remained on a tryout deal into the season, suggesting that it was only a matter of time before he received a contract, the financial terms of which were not disclosed.
The 35-year-old has played in 955 career NHL games between New York and Toronto, recording 176 points, 1,158 penalty minutes, and 3,849 hits. With the series of roster moves the team made, he will be available to suit up against Florida tonight if head coach Patrick Roy wants to put him in the lineup.
Duclair’s placement on LTIR comes as no surprise. Earlier this week, it was revealed that he’ll miss four to six weeks due to the leg injury he sustained last weekend. With the Islanders operating very close to the salary cap, gaining even some short-term flexibility will certainly help. Duclair’s placement was backdated to October 19th and he must miss at least 10 games and 24 days from then although the expected timeline for recovery will run longer than that.
Foudy’s time with the big club was relatively short-lived. He was only brought up on Tuesday, taking Julien Gauthier’s place on the active roster. The 24-year-old played in two games while on recall and was held off the scoresheet while averaging just 7:27 per game. Foudy has 104 career NHL appearances under his belt now between three separate organizations. He has four assists in five games so far with Bridgeport.
Engvall is in the second season of a seven-year, $21MM contract which made it both surprising and not surprising that he was on waivers at the end of training camp. Needing to open up cap room (his demotion saved them $1.15MM prorated), he was a safe bet to pass through unclaimed. That said, the fact he hit the wire just a year after being retained as a key secondary piece is an outcome few would have foreseen. The 28-year-old had 10 goals and 14 assists in 74 NHL games last season and has just one tally in six games so far with Bridgeport.
Fasching played in 45 games with the Isles last season where he had four goals and ten assists. However, that wasn’t enough to save him from going through waivers late in training camp where he passed through unclaimed. He has a goal and an assist in five games so far with Bridgeport.
As a result of these roster moves, the Islanders are now at the maximum of 23 players on the active roster.
The Islanders need scoring, Lou has been asleep at the wheel for sometime now.
This is ridiculous. Matt Martin is a good guy but it’s time to let go. There was no reason to give him a contract. None. The Islanders should have tried to get someone who could score some goals and instead they’re spending money on people who can’t.
This is a typical Grandpa Lou move. This was his plan all along to keep Martin for another season. The rest of the NHL knew Martin had nothing left, but Grandpa Lou couldn’t let him go. How much more can he do to show ownership he’s completely out of touch with how to run a hockey team. We have no young players to call up because he doesn’t know how to build a team through the draft. And the players he does draft that have potential he doesn’t sign because all his money is tied up paying this pathetic team he’s assembled that never will be any better than what they are right now. He won’t buy out any of the bad contracts that he gave out because that would show ownership he wasted their money, and that he made a mistake. I’ve been an Islanders fan since 1972 and I’m just disgusted with how this team has been run the last twenty five years. Sadly there isn’t any hope in sight with this ownership/management group failing the fans to really put a high quality product on the ice of a brand new building. We could just as well stayed in Uniondale and watched this dreck. Bill Torrey and Al Arbour I’m sure would be disgusted to see what’s happened to their team. Lou Must Go!!!!!