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Mathew Barzal To Return For Game One

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The New York Islanders have a tall task ahead of them in their first-round playoff matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes, as they’re looking to eliminate a club many view as a Stanley Cup contender. They will get some crucial help, though, as one of the team’s top offensive players, Mathew Barzal, is set to return from injury for Game One. (via The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz) Barzal hasn’t played since a February contest against the Boston Bruins, and was on a hot streak with six points in four games before going down with his injury.

  • Although the Islanders will get Barzal back in time for the playoffs, the same can’t be said for another one of the team’s young talents. Head coach Lane Lambert told the media today, including Kurz, that defenseman Alexander Romanov will not be available for the first game of their series against Carolina. Romanov has been skating by himself and is inching closer to a return, but remains unavailable. Acquired by the Islanders at the 2022 draft, Romanov last played on April 1st and has scored 22 points this season playing nearly 20 minutes a night.

Romanov Begins Skating Again

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  • In the first year of a 3-year, $7.5MM contract signed with the New York Islanders this past summer, Alexander Romanov has been out of the lineup since the team’s game on April 1st. The Islanders are still battling for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and they may be getting Romanov sooner rather than later. Andrew Gross of Newsday is reporting that Romanov has recently begun skating on his own again. Being one of the better low-key defensemen in the NHL, Romanov has 129 blocked shots and 198 hits for the Islanders this season.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Bridgeport Islanders Sign Matthew Maggio

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  • Another signing from the CHL today, this time from the Ontario Hockey League, Matthew Maggio has signed an amateur tryout agreement with the New York Islander’s AHL affiliate Bridgeport Islanders. Originally drafted 142nd overall in the 2022 NHL Draft by the Islanders, Maggio has become one of the best young players in Ontario. In his draft year, Maggio scored 38 goals and 47 assists in 66 games, and followed that up this year with a 54-goal and 57-assist performance. He led the Windsor Spitfires to the OHL Finals last year, eventually losing to the Hamilton Bulldogs.
  • The minor league affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings, Grand Rapids Griffins, has also joined the fray of signing CHL products, announcing the signing of defenseman Jérémie Biakabutuka to an amateur tryout agreement. Biakabutuka has spent the last five seasons in the QMJHL, split between the Val-d’Or Foreurs, Rimouski Océanic, and the Charlottetown Islanders. In 266 career games in major junior, Biakabutuka scored a total of 40 goals and 78 assists.

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Alexander Romanov Listed As Day-To-Day

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New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov, who did not play in the team’s last game against the Carolina Hurricanes, is officially listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. There is no timeline on his return, but Islanders’ head coach Lane Lambert confirmed he will not be in tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Originally drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 2018, Romanov became one of the better young defensemen on the Canadiens’ blue line. During his rookie season in 2020-21, Romanov played in 54 games for Montreal, primarily as a depth defenseman, and even registered four games on the Canadiens’ path to the Stanley Cup Final.

Last season, Montreal took a dive back to the basement of the NHL, and with Romanov becoming a restricted free agent, he was made available to other teams via trade during the 2022 NHL Draft. In the first round, Romanov was subsequently traded to the Islanders for the 13th overall pick (which was later traded to the Chicago Blackhawks) and then would go on to sign a 3-year, $7.5MM in New York.

This season, Romanov has progressed with the Islanders, scoring 22 points in 76 games, all while carrying a solid +13 +/-. Unfortunately for New York, Romanov is a key defenseman to be missing as the team looks to find its way back to the playoffs. As things currently sit, the Islanders hold the last wild card position in the Eastern Conference and hold a one-point lead on the Pittsburgh Penguins with the same amount of games played.

Islanders Rule Oliver Wahlstrom Out For The Season

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If the Islanders are going to earn a Wild Card seed, they’ll be doing so with winger Oliver Wahlstrom.  GM Lou Lamoriello announced today that Wahlstrom has been ruled out for the season due to a lower-body injury suffered back in December.

The 22-year-old looked to be on his way to establishing new career highs offensively as he had seven goals and nine assists in 35 games prior to the injury.  The uptick in per-game production came despite his playing time remaining relatively flat at just over 12 minutes a night as he seemed to adjust well under first-year coach Lane Lambert.

That said, this certainly isn’t the way that Wahlstrom wanted his entry-level contract to end with only playing half of his platform season.  He’s set to become a restricted free agent this summer without arbitration rights and while he’ll undoubtedly earn more than his $874K qualifying offer, he’s almost certainly looking at a short-term bridge contract.

Fortunately for New York, there was also some good news on the injury front as the Isles also revealed that center Mathew Barzal is set to resume skating either today or tomorrow.  The 25-year-old has missed more than a month with a lower-body injury but still sits second on the team in scoring with 14 goals and 37 assists in 58 games.  Getting Barzal back for the final few games would go a long way toward helping them lock down a playoff position.

New York Islanders Sign Two NCAA Free Agents

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The New York Islanders have announced the signings of two college free agents to two-year entry-level deals beginning in the 2023-24 campaign: Aidan Fulp and Travis Mitchell.

The first of these two signings, Fulp, adds a big defensive defenseman to the Islanders’ system. Six-foot-four, 215-pound right-shot defensemen don’t grow on trees, and those unreachable physical attributes alone make him an intriguing player for Islanders fans to track.

The 23-year-old, a top-four defenseman for Western Michigan, has an edge to his game and is an intimidating presence in his own zone, playing the sort of chance-killing style that many coaches have come to appreciate.

While there’s not much of an offensive game to speak of (he scored 39 points in 97 career games at Western Michigan) Fulp brings some leadership value to the table as well, having served as an alternate captain in college and as the captain of the Dubuque Fighting Saints during his time in the USHL.

He even won the Curt Hammer Award as a USHLer, an award given to the “player that distinguishes himself both on and off the ice by demonstrating outstanding performance skills, pride and determination.”

The second player the Islanders signed, Mitchell, is like Fulp a big stay-at-home defenseman. The 23-year-old Cornell University product scored 19 points in 34 games this season and earned this entry-level contract on the back of a pro-ready defensive game.

He’ll be able to hold his own in a more difficult professional setting and should be a solid addition to the Islanders’ defensive equation with their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, next season.

These two free-agent additions represent a useful injection of young talent to what is generally seen as a weak prospect pool. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked the Islanders’ farm system #27 in the NHL earlier this year, (subscription link) and that came before the Islanders dealt away top-ranked prospect Aatu Raty.

With only three blueliners in the Islanders’ top-10 prospects as ranked by Wheeler, adding these two NCAA free agents to their system is a strong, needed bit of business by GM Lou Lamoriello.

Sebastian Aho Returns To Practice

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  • New York Islanders defenseman Sebastian Aho has returned to skating this morning, according to a report from Newsday’s Andrew Gross. Aho has missed three games with an upper-body injury sustained on March 18 against the San Jose Sharks. The 2017 fifth-round pick is enjoying a breakout season, recording 21 points in 66 games in a depth role while helping keep the team competitive in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Latest On Mathew Barzal

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New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert issued an update on his team’s star forward, Mathew Barzal, who has been out since the middle of February with a lower-body injury. As relayed by Newsday’s Andrew Gross, Lambert said that Barzal has not yet resumed skating, indicating that he is still a ways away from making his return to the Islanders’ lineup.

While a 7-2-1 run in their last ten games has gone a long way to put the Islanders in pole position for an Eastern Conference Wild Card spot, the Islanders remain a team below their full capabilities with Barzal out of the lineup. Despite facing some significant criticism in recent years due to the fact that he has not yet seen his numbers reach the heights they saw in his Calder Trophy-winning rookie year, Barzal remains the Islanders’ most talented forward and the skater on their roster most capable of taking over a game. He’s scored 51 points in 58 games this season, and his return would give the Islanders a major boost as they look towards a likely first-round matchup where they’ll be a significant underdog.

  • Veteran Columbus Blue Jackets center Sean Kuraly is returning to the lineup for his club’s game tonight against the New York Islanders. As team reporter Jeff Svoboda notes, Kuraly was originally projected to miss the rest of the season with the oblique strain he suffered on March 2nd, but he now returns with a full 12 games left on the schedule. The longtime bottom-sixer has scored 10 goals and 17 points for the Blue Jackets this season, providing valuable grit and veteran leadership to a young Blue Jackets team.

Minor Transactions: Kesselring, Berard, Krygier, Pivonka

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The Arizona Coyotes have announced via a press release that they have recalled defenseman Michael Kesselring from their AHL affiliate Tucson Roadrunners. Since being acquired from the Edmonton Oilers as part of the Nick Bjugstad trade, Kesselring has now been recalled on an emergency loan for the fourth time in just under three weeks.

After having a productive season with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate Bakersfield Condors, Kesselring has played three games for the Roadrunners, scoring two points, and four games for the Coyotes, scoring zero points. Given the seemingly unending rotating door that Kesselring has found himself in, this will likely not be the last time he will find himself being emergency recalled this year.

Other notes:

  • The New York Rangers have signed prospect Brett Berard to an entry-level contract that will kick in next year. In the meantime, the Providence College product will join the team’s AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack on an amateur tryout basis. The contract will run until the end of the 2025-26 season, paying the forward $925K in the NHL, and $80K in the AHL. Drafted 134th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, Berard capped off a solid career at Providence, playing in a total of 91 regular season games, scoring 33 goals and 39 assists.
  • Jacob Pivonka will be joining the Bridgeport Islanders on an ATO today. Drafted 104th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, the young forward played a majority of his collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame, but ultimately finished it at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. In his four-year college career, Pivonka played in 126 regular-season games, scoring 17 goals and 29 assists.
  • Also joining Pivonka in Bridgeport on an ATO will be defenseman Christian Krygier from Michigan State University. This will be the second transaction in as many days for the Krygier family, as his brother, Cole Krygier, just had his rights acquired by the Los Angeles Kings. Christian managed to accrue five seasons in the NCAA after being given another season of eligibility due to the Covid-19 pandemic and managed to score 20 points for the Spartans.

Islanders Hopeful Barzal Can Return Before Playoffs

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The New York Islanders are currently in the first wild card positon, but it will be a dogfight till the end of the season to secure their spot in the postseason. Every game matters and there was some good news this morning as head coach Lane Lambert told reporters, including Andrew Gross of Newsday, that the team is hopeful Mathew Barzal can return before the end of the regular season.

Barzal was listed as week-to-week over a month ago and hasn’t played since his third shift on February 18. The 25-year-old forward had 51 points in 58 games when he went down to injury, and would be a huge boost for the Islanders if things do come down to the last few games of the season.

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