Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Islanders Rumors

Kyle Okposo Announces Retirement

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Longtime New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres winger Kyle Okposo has announced his retirement from the NHL in an open letter, released by agency CAA Hockey. In the letter, Okposo recounted his dreams of pursuing the NHL and the deep relationships he was able to form around the league. Okposo will be ending a decorated career, encompassing 17 NHL seasons, 1,051 games, and as of a few months ago, one Stanley Cup.

Okposo was originally selected seventh overall by the Islanders in the 2006 NHL Draft, after winning the 2006 USHL Clark Cup Championship with the Des Moines Buccaneers. He followed the draft with two productive years at the University of Minnesota, combining for 51 points in 58 games, before turning pro in the second-half of the 2007-08 season. Okposo’s production quickly translated to the AHL flight, and he earned his first NHL call-up after 35 games and 28 points in Bridgeport.

Once he was called up, Okposo didn’t look back – netting five points in his first nine NHL games, then more formally scoring 18 goals and 39 points in 65 games during his rookie season. He jumped up to New York’s second line and held his spot proudly, routinely challenging 20 goals and 50 points – peaking with a career-high 27 goals and 69 points in the 2013-14 season. Few wingers were as reliable as Okposo, and he carried that responsibility through a move to the Buffalo Sabres in 2016 – signing a seven-year deal in what was his only experience on the free agent market.

Okposo joined a Sabres team quickly approaching rock bottom. They did not once make the postseason during Okposo’s eight years with the club, but that didn’t dissuade him from latching on to his patented role in the lineup. Even through challenges with routine concussions, Okposo stood as a routine scorer, challenging 45 points every time he was able to play in a full season with the Sabres.

The consistent persistence earned Okposo the Sabres’ captaincy in 2022, succeeding Jack Eichel after his move to Vegas. Okposo wore the ’C’ for the next two seasons. But with the then-35-year-old quickly approaching his final skates, the Sabres made the difficult decision to trade their captain at the 2024 Trade Deadline, moving him to a team capable of running towards the Stanley Cup.

And thus, Okposo joined the red-hot Florida Panthers, with a fifth-round pick and the rights to defender Calle Sjalin headed back to Buffalo. Okposo filled the role of 13th-forward for Florida, only slotting into six regular season games and failing to record a point. But his energy proved invaluable in the postseason, where he appeared in 17 games and found a way to make a noticeable impact despite recording just two assists. The hard work paid off, and in his first postseason appearance since 2016 – Okposo won the Stanley Cup.

He’ll end his career on that high, but it’s hard to think his eager personality will stay away from the league for long. He hinted at that in his retirement announcement, sharing, “Thirty years of playing hockey was incredible… I believe the game is in a great place right now, but the possibilities are vast. I’m looking forward to continuing to contribute to the games as it reaches new heights.”

Metropolitan Notes: St. Ivany, Tuomaala, Duclair

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Jack St. Ivany has the inside track at landing the third pairing right defense spot that will be up for grabs during Penguins training camp, opines Josh Yohe of The Athletic.

St. Ivany, 25, was a fourth-round pick of the rival Flyers in 2018 but didn’t sign with them following his senior season at Boston College in 2022. He instead landed in Pittsburgh as a free agent, signing a two-year, entry-level contract.

The California native reached the NHL last season after spending his first pro campaign entirely in the minors, recording an assist while averaging 13:42 per game over 14 contests over a late-season call-up. He didn’t have many visible mistakes, only logging three giveaways, although his overall defensive impact was questionable, with a -6.5 relative CF% at even strength in tough but not overwhelmingly difficult minutes.

But as Yohe points out, St. Ivany doesn’t have many legitimate challengers for the role, at least among right-shot defenders. Free agent addition Sebastian Aho could flip to his off-side and be a higher-upside option offensively if the Penguins wish, though.

St. Ivany signed a three-year, league-minimum extension back in May and has a two-way salary structure this year and next. He’s also still waiver-exempt, so if he falls behind off-handed competition like Aho and Ryan Shea during training camp, there’s nothing stopping Pittsburgh from assigning him to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton without incident.

More from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Flyers prospect Samu Tuomaala remains absent from rookie camp and is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia. The 21-year-old right-winger has two years remaining on his entry-level contract and is coming off an impressive first season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, where he finished third in scoring with 43 points (15 G, 28 A) in 69 games. The 2021 second-round pick is destined for the Phantoms once again to open the season but should put himself under consideration for an NHL call-up and corresponding debut over the course of the season.
  • The Islanders will indeed kick off camp with free agent signing Anthony Duclair riding shotgun on the top line with Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat, head coach Patrick Roy told reporters today (via Stefen Rosner of NHL.com and The Hockey News). The 29-year-old Duclair did quite well in a similar role in a limited time for the Lightning after they acquired him from the Sharks at last year’s deadline, posting 15 points in 17 games next to their star-powered duo of Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. The Isles signed Duclair, who’s averaged 21 goals and 43 points per 82 games throughout his career, to a four-year, $14MM deal on July 1.

Ilya Sorokin Had Back Surgery, Not Expected To Miss Time

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Star Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin underwent back surgery this offseason, head coach Patrick Roy told reporters Monday (via Stefen Rosner of NHL.com and The Hockey News). General manager Lou Lamoriello said Friday that Sorokin sustained an undisclosed injury this summer but had already returned to the ice and was expected to be a full participant shortly after training camp began.

A significant offseason procedure likely isn’t the way either side wanted to preface the eight-year, $66MM extension he signed last summer. But if a back injury was plaguing him last season, it offers an explanation for his more down-to-earth .908 SV% and 3.01 GAA that ended up losing him the starters’ crease to Semyon Varlamov in playoff action. Sorokin did start in Game 3 of the First Round against the Hurricanes, but he allowed three goals on 14 shots before getting the yank from Roy.

Despite those struggles, there’s little question that Sorokin remains a top-10 netminder in the NHL entering this season. He still finished eighth in Vezina Trophy voting last season and built up quite the acclaim in the two years prior, posting a .924 SV% and 2.37 GAA with 13 shutouts in 114 appearances across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns. He was the no-contest runner-up to Linus Ullmark in Vezina voting in 2023.

But if Sorokin’s recovery stretches into the regular season for whatever reason, the Isles still have a spectacular backup plan with Varlamov. Due to Sorokin’s brilliance, the 36-year-old Russian has been limited to fewer than 30 starts in each of the past three seasons, but he’s still been well above average. He had a .918 SV%, 2.60 GAA, and three shutouts in 28 appearances last season.

Sorokin, 29, was a third-round pick of the Isles back in 2014. He has a .919 SV% in 192 regular-season NHL games since arriving in North America in 2020.

Lamoriello: Unlikely To Be Much Of A Camp Battle On Defense

at CDT | by 3 Comments

  • In his media availability yesterday (video link), Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello indicated that there probably won’t be much of a battle for roster spots on the back end in training camp. Their top six is healthy after an injury-riddled year and their preference is to not have prospects Calle Odelius and Isaiah George in a reserve role to start the season.  Accordingly, the battle for the seventh and final defensive spot in camp could be between returnees Simon Bolduc and Dennis Cholowski.  Bolduc is now waiver-eligible which could help give him a leg up in that battle since Cholowski has cleared successfully in the past.

Islanders To Sign Artyom Kudashov To PTO

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The New York Islanders reportedly have brought in defensive prospect Artyom Kudashov on a professional tryout agreement according to Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. Kudashov, 19, will attend the Islanders’ rookie and training camp over the next several weeks hoping to earn a contract.

Kudashov will be the second player poached by the Islanders this summer from the KHL if he signs a contract joining Maxim Tsyplakov who signed his entry-level deal in May. He doesn’t carry the same pedigree as Tsyplakov so he must earn his spot on the team before New York offers him a contract.

It won’t be the first time he’s skated with an NHL team as the undrafted Russian skated with the Philadelphia Flyers during their summer camp. According to Rosner, the Islanders took an interest then and followed him back overseas while he started the 2024-25 KHL season with Dynamo Moskva.

He spent much of last year with Dynamo’s MHL team scoring five goals and eight points in 21 games. His time in the KHL wasn’t as fruitful with Kudashov failing to put up any points in 25 contests. He considers himself a two-way defenseman but leans much heavier into the defensive side — something New York could use at all levels of their organization.

Artyom is excited about an NHL opportunity after watching his father, Alexei Kudashov, play 25 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1993-94 season. Given that New York could use two-way depth on defense, Kudashov should have every opportunity to earn himself a two-way contract out of camp.

Sorokin To Miss Start Of Training Camp, No Major Concerns

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • Arthur Staple of The Athletic relayed a note from the general manager of the New York Islanders, Lou Lamoriello indicating that goaltender Ilya Sorokin sustained an injury in summer training but is already back skating. Sorokin should only miss a few days of training camp as Islanders’ brass have no worries the injury issue will extend into the season. Sorokin had a bit of a down year compared to his career averages last season and New York will hope he can rebound from the difficult year as his eight-year, $66MM contract kicks in.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Islanders Sign Matt Martin To PTO

at CDT | by 9 Comments

The Islanders are bringing back a familiar face, according to general manager Lou Lamoriello, who told reporters today that they’ll have veteran enforcer Matt Martin in training camp on a PTO (via Ethan Sears of the New York Post).

It’s an unsurprising move for both sides at first glance. Martin, 35, has spent 13 of his 15 NHL seasons on Long Island, racking up 823 appearances since they drafted him in the fifth round in 2008. Aside from a brief detour in Toronto from 2016 to 2018, the heavy hitter has only signed contracts with the Islanders, including his most recent one – a four-year, $6MM pact that expired this summer.

But this is a bit of a course reversal from Lamoriello, who said last month he was unlikely to bring back Martin or longtime linemate Cal Clutterbuck. He’ll hold true to the latter half of that statement, though, confirming today Clutterbuck was not offered a PTO (per Newsday’s Andrew Gross). Martin said a couple of weeks ago that he was intent on returning to the Isles with a chance at playing his 1,000th career regular season game in 2024-25.

Martin posted four goals and four assists in 57 games last season, pacing just slightly south of his career offensive averages while averaging 9:19 per game. He finished second on the team in PIMs (43) and fifth in hits (151). He has 1,158 career PIMs in 955 games.

If Martin manages to land a deal, it’ll likely be a league-minimum pact and could result in him being waived for the first time in his career. The Islanders do have an open roster spot but are completely capped out with $0 in projected space, per PuckPedia. If he’s sent to the minors, it would be his first time suiting up for AHL Bridgeport since the 2010-11 season.

Islanders Sign Keith Kinkaid To PTO

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The Islanders will have free agent goaltender Keith Kinkaid in training camp on a professional tryout contract, relays Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.

Kinkaid, 35, is on the UFA market for the fifth time in the past six years. He spent last season on a two-way deal with the Devils, where he spent six of his 10 NHL seasons, but didn’t play in the organization. He was instead loaned out to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, the minor league’s lone non-affiliated franchise last season, where he had a 3.54 GAA, .880 SV%, and an 8-14-2 record in 24 appearances.

An undrafted free agent signing by New Jersey back in 2011, Kinkaid was a solid backup/1B option during his peak in the Garden State but hasn’t been an NHL regular since being traded to the Blue Jackets at the 2019 trade deadline. He’s made 14 NHL starts and four relief appearances over the past five seasons and didn’t see NHL ice in 2023-24.

The Long Island native will now aid his hometown team in camp. Inexplicably, the veteran of 13 professional seasons and 169 NHL games is on the Isles’ rookie camp roster, where he’ll be providing insurance for 21-year-old prospect Tristan Lennox, who’s reportedly a bit banged up and might not be fully ready to go in the run-up to veterans reporting to training camp next Wednesday.

In those 169 career appearances, Kinkaid has a 70-58-21 record, eight shutouts, a 2.91 GAA, and a .905 SV%. 151 of those games came in a Devils uniform, although he’s also logged time between the pipes for the Canadiens, Rangers, Bruins, and Avalanche in the past few years.

The Islanders already have six goaltenders signed, so the likelihood of Kinkaid landing a contract from this PTO appears slim. The team already acquired a veteran presence for their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, bringing in former Senator Marcus Högberg on a two-year deal. Lennox and a pair of other contracted prospects in their early 20s (Jakub Skarek, Henrik Tikkanen) will also compete for reps in Bridgeport.

Snapshots: McCabe, Couture, Shattenkirk, Kaprizov, Sorokin

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Maple Leafs have begun initial talks with defenseman Jake McCabe on a contract extension, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. He’s entering the final season of a four-year, $16MM deal with a $4MM cap hit, but the Leafs are only on the hook for half of it thanks to the Blackhawks retaining $2MM per season on his deal when they traded him to Toronto before the 2023 trade deadline.

McCabe, 31 in October, has fit in seamlessly on the Toronto blue line, averaging 20:39 per game in his first entire season there last year. It wasn’t quite a career-high in ice time, but it was a career-best year for McCabe in nearly every other category, including goals (8), points (28), rating (+20), and hits (219).

While a passable puck-mover, McCabe is primarily effective as a stay-at-home piece. He averaged 2:12 per game on the penalty kill and kept his head above water in terms of controlling expected goals at even strength, the first time he’s done so in his career after toiling on rebuilders in Buffalo and Chicago. He’ll still feature heavily on a new-look Toronto defense next season featuring Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev.

More from around the league:

  • There’s still uncertainty about Sharks captain Logan Couture’s availability to begin the season, but Friedman said that he doesn’t get the sense Couture is considering hanging up his skates. The 35-year-old played just six games in 2023-24 due to osteitis pubis, a rare type of joint inflammation that causes pain and swelling in the groin and lower abdomen (from the Cleveland Clinic). With three seasons left on his contract at an $8MM cap hit, the 15-year veteran still hopes to be a core piece and guide San Jose’s new crop of young players through their ongoing rebuild.
  • Free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk still fully intends on returning for his 15th NHL season in 2024-25, his agent, George Bazos, tells Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Bazos said his camp is in discussions with a few teams regarding his client but didn’t say whether they were regarding guaranteed deals or professional tryout agreements. Shattenkirk, 35, had 24 points in 61 games with the Bruins last season in bottom-pairing minutes after signing a one-year, $1.05MM deal in Boston in free agency.
  • Leon Draisaitl’s recent eight-year mega-deal likely has positive implications for Kirill Kaprizov as he kicks off extension negotiations with the Wild, Friedman posits. Kaprizov’s deal runs for two more seasons, and he isn’t eligible to sign an extension until July 1, 2025, but there’s already a sentiment building around the league that Draisaitl’s $14MM cap hit is a “needle-mover” for contracts handed out to superstars, Friedman said. After winning the Calder Trophy during the shortened 2020-21 season, Kaprizov has emerged as one of the league’s most consistent scorers, topping the 40-goal mark for three years in a row. He’s still owed $17.5MM on the five-year, $45MM deal he signed as a restricted free agent in 2021.
  • An undisclosed injury may have had something to do with Ilya Sorokin’s slight regression in play for the Islanders last season, Friedman said. The 29-year-old netminder still managed to finish eighth in Vezina Trophy voting, but his .908 SV%, 3.01 GAA, and two shutouts were all career-lows. He’s about to kick off the eight-year, $66MM extension he signed to stay on Long Island last summer, and Friedman said whether Sorokin checks in at 100% when training camp begins later this month will be one of the bigger storylines to watch for the Isles.

Evening Notes: Islanders, Ducks, Wild

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News wonders if the New York Islanders would benefit from bringing in a player like Filip Zadina before training camp. The Islanders badly needed a top-six forward this summer but didn’t have the cap space or assets to make a move towards improving their forward group. Zadina has been linked to the Buffalo Sabres and has potential interest from a handful of other teams. He is also reportedly close to signing with an NHL team.

The 24-year-old hasn’t been able to live up to his draft status as a sixth overall pick and will now join his third NHL team in just seven seasons. The Pardubice, Czech Republic native, scored a career-high 13 goals last season and tallied 23 points in 72 games with the San Jose Sharks. But, despite being on the worst team in the NHL, he failed to play more than third- and fourth-line minutes and given the current state of his game, it’s unlikely he would help out the Islanders’ top six forwards. However, he could carve out a depth role in their bottom six.

In other evening notes:

  • The Anaheim Ducks announced that they’ve partnered with A Parent Media Co. Inc. to stream all of their regional games this season free of charge. The games will be available on the soon-to-launch Victory+, allowing Ducks fans in the Los Angeles regional market to watch Ducks games for free. The app for Victory+ will be available for fans outside the Ducks’ television region as well, but the games will not be free. However, the app will allow fans in other parts of the country to view the extra content that the team produces outside of their games.
  • Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin spoke with KFAN FM 100.3 today and discussed the upcoming season, where his expectations are for the Wild to make the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup. Guerin has had to navigate some very rocky waters the past couple of summers regarding the salary cap, as the Wild have had to account for $14.74MM in dead cap space for two years due to the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. However, he has managed to keep the team competitive and believes that if his current group stays healthy, they will be in the mix come playoff time. Minnesota didn’t make many changes this summer and will count on many internal improvements from young players if they hope to improve on the disappointment of missing the playoffs last season.
AJAX Loader
Load More Posts

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top