- The New York Islanders announced today that forward Cal Clutterbuck has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to September 26. He’s eligible to be activated at any time, and he’s been classified as day-to-day by the team as he deals with soreness. Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said today he doesn’t anticipate Clutterbuck being out for a significant period of time, and he’s been skating on his own.
Islanders Rumors
Oliver Wahlstrom Should Be Ready For Thursday's Opener
- Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom missed the last three preseason games due to an upper-body issue, notes Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (Twitter link). Despite that, it appears as if he’ll be available to suit up in Thursday’s opener. Wahlstrom’s sophomore year was an underwhelming one as he managed just 13 goals and 11 assists in 73 games last season and he’ll certainly be looking for a stronger showing heading into a contract year.
Alexander Romanov Fined For Charging
- The Department of Player Safety announced that Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov has been fined $5,000 for charging, the maximum allowed under the CBA. The incident occurred early in the third period on Rangers center Vincent Trocheck with a minor penalty being assessed on the play. Romanov was the Islanders’ big acquisition this summer, being acquired back at the draft along with a fourth-round pick from Montreal in exchange for the 13th selection.
Waivers: 10/05/22
Another large group of players finds themselves on waivers today, hoping to get picked up by an NHL roster. The AHL awaits most that clear, though placement on the wire doesn’t necessarily indicate assignment to the minor leagues. Some players will clear just to give their team a little more roster flexibility over the next few weeks. Everyone from yesterday has cleared, and waivers today include:
Carolina Hurricanes
Ryan Dzingel
Maxime Lajoie
Lane Pederson
Stelio Mattheos
Mackenzie MacEachern
Minnesota Wild
New York Islanders
Dennis Cholowski
Cory Schneider
Parker Wotherspoon
Hudson Fasching
Arnaud Durandeau
Cole Bardreau
Andy Andreoff
Philadelphia Flyers
Adam Brooks
Max Willman
Louis Belpedio
This page will be updated as more reports come in
New York Islanders Extend Mathew Barzal
6:33 pm: According to CapFriendly, Barzal will receive exactly $9.15MM in base salary across all eight seasons. A 22-team no-trade clause will kick in for the 2024-25 season and continue for the duration of the contract.
11:44 am: The New York Islanders have signed Mathew Barzal to an eight-year extension worth a total of $73.2MM. The deal will start in 2023-24 and carries an average annual value of $9.15MM.
Barzal, 25, is heading into the third season of a three-year, $21MM bridge contract he signed in 2021 and would have been due a qualifying offer of $8.4MM next summer. That also would have been his final year as a restricted free agent, he would have had arbitration rights, and could have potentially walked himself right to unrestricted free agency by agreeing to a one-year deal. With all of that in mind, the Islanders had to pay up to keep Barzal in the fold long-term, buying out a very expensive RFA season and seven more UFA years.
At $9.15MM, he will become the team’s highest-paid player by quite a bit, blowing by the previous $7MM cap that Anders Lee carries through 2025-26. While the last couple of seasons hasn’t been quite as impressive as Barzal’s incredible 85-point rookie campaign in 2017-18, his dynamic offensive skill is something that is difficult to come by. There’s little doubt that Barzal is the most talented forward on the team, and now with a contract like this in hand, he becomes the pillar to build the rest of the offensive group around.
The question, of course, is whether the Islanders will be able to support Barzal with enough skill once he’s earning so much. A $9.15MM cap hit makes him the 21st highest-paid forward in the league, ahead of some very consistent goal scorers like Filip Forsberg and Mika Zibanejad, and some young up-and-coming talents like Brady Tkachuk and Robert Thomas. The contract that CapFriendly notes as most comparable is Brayden Point’s $76MM extension, which kicks in this year, but that is a pretty high bar for Barzal to reach on a consistent basis.
With more than $71MM now committed to next season, with a roster of just 17 players, Islanders management will need to make some tough decisions in the years to come. Ilya Sorokin, Josh Bailey, and Anthony Beauvillier are all scheduled for unrestricted free agency after 2023-24. The team is likely betting on the salary cap taking the sharp increase that has been reported, or else things are going to get tight, quick.
Either way, this locks a fan favorite in for the better part of his career, and allows Islanders fans to breathe easy about Barzal’s future. The 16th overall pick from 2015 is now under contract through 2030-31 and now has no negotiations to distract him from getting back to the point-per-game player he has proven capable of being.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Aatu Raty Not Expected To Make Islanders Opening Night Roster
- Earlier today when New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert met the media, The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz asked the new bench boss about top prospect Aatu Raty, who has impressed so far in Islanders camp. Specifically, Kurz wondered if Raty, who is a natural center, could be a fit on the wing, to which Lambert replied that the 19-year-old is a center only. This would seem to indicate that despite his strong impression, Raty is unlikely to make the Islanders opening night roster, given the team’s strong depth down the middle with Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Casey Cizikas. Considering the prospect’s struggles in his first full season in the Finnish Liiga, which contributed to his draft stock slipping, it might make sense that Raty doesn’t spend his first full season in North America in the NHL. However, if he can produce similarly to how he did last season with Jukurit (40 points in 41 games), it is possible Raty could force his way into the NHL sooner rather than later.
Waivers: 09/29/22
Waivers will officially open today, meaning teams around the league can start cutting eligible players with the purpose of sending them to minor league clubs. While the full list will come out at 2 pm ET, some have already started announcing their initial placements. You can see all of the day’s cuts here, but we’ll also keep track of just the waiver portion in this post.
Arizona Coyotes
F Michael Carcone
F Jean-Sebastien Dea
Colorado Avalanche
F Charles Hudon
F Spencer Smallman
D Andreas Englund
D Brad Hunt
D Joshua Jacobs
G Jonas Johansson
Los Angeles Kings
New York Islanders
F Richard Panik
G Kenneth Appleby
New York Rangers
This page will be updated throughout the day
Training Camp Notes: Stone, Biakabutuka, Mangiapane
Injury troubles plagued the Vegas Golden Knights last season, something they can ill-afford a repeat of in 2022-23. There’s some good news on that front regarding one of their star players, though, as right wing Mark Stone skated in a contact jersey today for the first time during training camp.
The Golden Knights will count on Stone to have a rebound year as their captain, especially with their offensive depth thinning. The 2021 Selke Trophy finalist and 2019 runner-up played in just 37 games due to injury last season, registering nine goals, 21 assists, and 30 points. Hopefully, the serious back injuries that plagued him last season don’t become a long-term issue for the 30-year-old.
- Somewhat of a rarity these days, a player attending camp on an amateur tryout might do well enough to earn a contract within the organization. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes that the Red Wings have been impressed with defenseman Jérémie Biakabutuka, with head coach Derek Lalonde complimenting his skating and compete level. The 20-year-old is set to return to the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders next season but could receive an NHL entry-level contract from Detroit or receive an AHL offer from the Grand Rapids Griffins when his season is over.
- Calgary Flames winger Andrew Mangiapane was a full participant in camp today after missing the first four days of group skates with what the team called a “minor lower-body injury.” He made his return to scrimmages skating on a line with newcomer Nazem Kadri, a role he’s likely to reprise in the regular season as well. Mangiapane is coming off a career-high 35 goals and 55 points.
Latest On Mathew Barzal
There’s a strong class of restricted free agents next offseason, headlined by young wingers like Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt (again), and Alex DeBrincat, to name a few. There’s also New York Islanders cornerstone Mathew Barzal, who said today during the first day of camp that he wants to get an extension done prior to the start of the regular season. However, in true Islanders fashion, little is known on how close the team and Barzal are on an extension, according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.
Barzal added that it’s not a hard deadline he’s imposing, rather, it’s just a desire to get it out of the way.
If [it’s not done before the start of the season], I’m not really worried about it just because my heart’s here and I know that we’ll get something fair and something both sides will be happy about.
Given precedence with the Islanders, we likely won’t know about the extension until it’s already signed. Barzal is entering the final season of a three-year, $21MM bridge deal signed days prior to the 2020-21 season.
Over the course of the past two years, Barzal’s scored 32 goals, 74 assists, and 104 points in 128 games while averaging 18:20 per night. While all of those figures have cooled off from the pace he set for himself during his Calder-winning 2017-18 campaign, he remains a vital young piece in an otherwise aging forward core.
His importance to the team, now and in the future, is something general manager Lou Lamoriello is keenly aware of, saying “without question” that he’d like to see Barzal in an Islanders jersey long-term. Depending on which rumors one listens to, Lamoriello demonstrated that commitment to Barzal by making a head coaching change this past offseason.
In any event, it seems likely at this point that Barzal will avoid another uncertain situation as a restricted free agent holdout as he did in 2020.
Andrew Ladd Fails Physical; Headed For IR
It appears as though Andrew Ladd’s career may be coming to an end, as Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports that the veteran forward has failed his physical due to lingering knee issues. He will be placed on injured reserve, which has a much greater impact than just taking him out of the lineup.
When the Arizona Coyotes agreed to take on Ladd’s contract from the New York Islanders in the summer of 2021, the trade included some very interesting conditions. Basically, if this exact scenario happened – Ladd still under contract for 2022-23, but not able to play – the Islanders would owe the Coyotes a 2023 third-round selection. If the veteran forward retired prior to this season or played even a single game, the pick wouldn’t be transferred.
The trade already brought two second-round picks to Arizona, one of which was used on overaged defenseman J.J. Moser, who stepped almost directly into the Coyotes lineup after being picked 60th overall in 2021. Moser had 15 points in 43 games while averaging nearly 19 minutes a night and figures to be a key building block for Arizona moving forward. Ladd himself even provided some valuable minutes, scoring seven goals and 12 points in 51 games last season after an impressive comeback.
Adding another third-round pick to the deal, while giving up nothing but money, certainly seems like a pretty nice haul for the Coyotes, who have collected draft picks better than any team in the league. Over the next three years, Arizona now holds 19 picks in the first three rounds alone. That’s after they picked three times in this year’s first round, twice in the second, and twice in the third.
If it is the end for Ladd, it comes after making it to an impressive milestone at the end of last season. The 36-year-old has played in 1,001 regular season games, scoring 256 goals and 550 points. He raised the Stanley Cup in both 2006 and 2010, first with the Carolina Hurricanes and then with the Chicago Blackhawks.