The Islanders are bringing back forwards Liam Foudy and Julien Gauthier for 2025-26 on two-way contracts, per a club announcement Sunday. Foudy’s financial terms haven’t been disclosed. However, PuckPedia reports that Gauthier will earn an NHL salary of $775K and a minor-league salary of $325K, with a $425K guarantee. Foudy was slated to become an RFA with arbitration rights on Tuesday, while Gauthier could have become a UFA.
Both are presumably destined for waivers in October and, if they clear, tons of ice time with AHL Bridgeport. They’ll hope to retain the seasoned pros as reinforcements for their struggling minor-league affiliate, which finished last in the AHL this season with a 15-50-4-3 record, including just four home wins. They’ve already made progress in replacing the entire coaching staff for the Baby Isles, naming former Flyers assistant Rocky Thompson as their new head coach last week.
The Islanders signed Foudy to a two-way deal last summer after he went non-tendered by the Predators, who claimed the 2018 first-round pick off waivers from Columbus but ended up stashing him in the minors for most of 2023-24 anyway. While the 25-year-old did get a pair of NHL games with the Isles early in the year, he successfully cleared waivers this time around and spent most of the year in Bridgeport. The versatile depth forward was one of just two Baby Isles to hit the 20-goal mark, adding 25 assists for 45 points. His eye-popping -31 rating was more a result of the team’s overall struggles than poor individual defensive play.
He’ll look to leverage his strong skating ability into increased offensive production for Bridgeport next year in hopes of earning more NHL opportunities than he did in 2024-25. He’s appeared in six straight NHL seasons with Columbus, Nashville, and New York but only has 104 appearances to his name, recording 22 points and a -29 rating for his career.
Gauthier, meanwhile, returns for his third season in the Islanders organization after signing a two-year, $1.58MM contract in 2023 following a non-tender by the Senators. He made a lone appearance for the Islanders back in October before returning to Bridgeport, where his season was cut short by an injury in late November. He did manage three goals and eight points in nine games for the club before landing on the injured list, though.
The 6’4″, 225-lb winger is also a former first-round pick who hasn’t managed to land a full-time NHL role over multiple seasons, going 21st overall to the Hurricanes back in 2016. He has slightly more NHL experience and production than Foudy, at 41 points in 181 career games. Now 27, he’s peaked as a top-six AHL producer with legitimate NHL call-up utility but doesn’t have much more room for growth.