- The Islanders welcomed back winger Cal Clutterbuck to their lineup in tonight’s game against New Jersey. The veteran had missed the last three games with an upper-body injury sustained a week and a half ago against Philadelphia. Clutterbuck has just three points in 22 games but is second on the team in hits, averaging just under four per contest. New York didn’t bother placing Clutterbuck on IR when he was injured so they didn’t have to make a corresponding roster move for him to return. He was injured midway through the first period but did return for the second.
Islanders Rumors
Kyle Palmieri, Cal Clutterbuck Remain Out Sunday
- New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert provided a few updates on his injured players ahead of tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. As Newsday’s Andrew Gross reports, both Kyle Palmieri, who is on IR, and Cal Clutterbuck, who is not, remain out of the lineup tonight, Lambert adding that Palmieri has yet to resume skating. Both players are dealing with upper-body injuries. On top of the two veterans, Lambert added that another forward is a game-time decision, not elaborating any further than that. The Islanders had called up forwards Simon Holmstrom, Cole Bardreau, and Hudson Fasching to fill the void, but have since sent Bardreau back to the AHL, recalling Robin Salo earlier this afternoon.
New York Islanders Recall Robin Salo
December 4: The route between Bridgeport, CT and Elmont, NY is rather traffic heavy, and Robin Salo can probably confirm. The Islanders announced this afternoon that Salo has once again been recalled from the AHL. It’s unclear if he’ll slot into the lineup tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks, however he did play in Bridgeport’s game yesterday against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Newsday’s Andrew Gross was the first to report the transaction.
November 30: Salo is headed back to Bridgeport, the Islanders announced Wednesday afternoon. He was a healthy scratch for the game against the Flyers, and the team will likely keep shuttling him up and down so that he isn’t sitting for too long. He hasn’t dressed for the NHL Islanders since October 20.
November 28: After going down to play in yesterday’s Bridgeport Islanders game, Robin Salo is right back with the big club today. The young defenseman will be available for tomorrow’s match against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Salo, 24, recorded an assist for Bridgeport, his first point of the season at the AHL level. He’s only played twice at the minor league level so far, suiting up four additional times for New York in a season of scratches.
Selected 46th overall in 2017, Salo now has 25 NHL appearances under his belt, but can’t seem to find a regular place in the Islanders lineup. With so many nights in the press box, getting a game in at the AHL level was necessary to keep Salo sharp.
Cole Bardreau Sent Back To Bridgeport
- Cole Bardreau’s latest stint with the Islanders didn’t last long as the team announced (Twitter link) that the winger has been returned to Bridgeport of the AHL. The 29-year-old did make his season debut last night, his first NHL action since the 2019-20 campaign. Bardreau, for now at least, returns to the minors where he has nine goals in 19 games with Bridgeport but with Cal Clutterbuck still not skating, it’s possible that Bardreau is brought up again in the coming days.
Kyle Palmieri Placed On Injured Reserve
The New York Islanders are down a pair of important forwards, placing Kyle Palmieri on injured reserve and ruling out Cal Clutterbuck with an upper-body injury. Clutterbuck is listed as day-to-day while Palmieri’s IR stint has been made retroactive to November 21, meaning he can come off whenever healthy.
In their place, Cole Bardreau and Hudson Fasching have been recalled from the minor leagues. The former hasn’t played an NHL game since the 2019-20 season and has just ten under his belt. This season with the Bridgeport Islanders, Bardreau has five goals and nine points. One of the players ahead of him in scoring is Fasching, another minor league veteran who has little NHL experience.
The 27-year-old forward played 11 games for the Arizona Coyotes last season and has 38 in his career, but scored his one and only goal back in 2015-16. Fasching adds a lot of sizes, but not a ton of physicality, and doesn’t look like a long-term replacement.
New York will have to hope Palmieri and Clutterbuck return rather soon, as while Bardreau and Fasching are capable minor league players, neither one is challenging for a full-time NHL role.
Scott Mayfield Hoping To Re-Sign With Islanders
Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield has been one of the better bargains in the league in recent seasons. A bit of a late bloomer, he opted to take a five-year deal with a cap hit of just $1.45MM, giving him some much-desired stability in the process. Since then, the 30-year-old has become an important part of their top four, logging nearly 20 minutes a night in a shutdown role. A pending UFA, Mayfield is now well-positioned to potentially more than double that price tag on his next deal and he made it clear to Newsday’s Andrew Gross that his desire is to remain with New York. The Isles already have over $73MM in commitments for next season per CapFriendly with a handful of roster spots to fill so they should have enough cap room to keep him in the fold unless GM Lou Lamoriello decides to shake things up next summer.
New York Islanders Recall Simon Holmstrom
The New York Islanders have announced that forward prospect Simon Holmstrom has been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders.
This move comes due to the fact that veteran winger Kyle Palmieri is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
This recall puts Holmstrom, the team’s 2019 first-round pick, in a position to make his NHL debut. The 21-year-old Swede is a big, speedy forward who has been developing at the AHL level since he was drafted by the Islanders.
In his rookie campaign in North America, handling the AHL seemed too tall a task for Holmstrom. He scored just 15 points in 46 games and struggled to make a consistent nightly impact.
Those scoring woes persisted through the pandemic-interrupted 2020-21 campaign, but last year Holmstrom seemed to find his groove. In 68 games he scored a healthy 12 goals and 43 points, putting him in a position to earn a call-up for the first time in his career.
That call-up didn’t come last year, but tonight it’s finally come after he’s spent fifteen additional games in the AHL. He has five points in 15 games so far this year and will look to impress Islanders brass and hope to earn consideration for a more lasting role on the team beyond being an injury fill-in.
The loss of Palmieri, 31, is not an insignificant one. The veteran winger is a trusted secondary scorer for coach Lane Lambert, and while his six goals and nine points don’t jump off the page, they place him just outside the team’s top-five scorers.
While the team will undoubtedly appreciate getting a look at Holmstrom next to franchise pivot Mat Barzal, the Islanders are likely hoping that Palmieri’s absence is a brief one.
Nikita Soshnikov Clears Waivers, Assigned To AHL
Nov 16, 5:15 PM: The Islanders have announced that Soshnikov has been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders.
Nov 16, 1:05 PM: Soshnikov has cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.
Nov 15: The New York Islanders have placed Nikita Soshnikov on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Should he clear, the team could assign him to the minor leagues, completely burying his $750K cap hit.
Soshnikov, 29, came back to North America after spending the last three seasons in the KHL, and it seemed as though he might find some new life on this side of the ocean. After all, the undrafted forward had been great in his time back home, scoring 98 points in 137 regular season games. Things haven’t gone so well though, with the Islanders only icing him three times this season.
If he does clear, one has to wonder whether Soshnikov will request a contract termination to go back to the KHL instead of reporting to the minor leagues. It’s been years since he played in the AHL on a regular basis, and there would certainly be interest in him by some of the better programs in Russia. We’ll have to wait and see what the Islanders have planned for him and the roster spot he currently occupies, but it might be close to the end of Soshnikov in the NHL.
In those three appearances this season he has not registered a point, meaning his career total is now 16 in 90 games played.
Latest On Cal Clutterbuck
- New York Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck left tonight’s game against the Flames in the first period after taking a hit from Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov. Of note is the fact that Clutterbuck missed the Islanders’ Friday practice for maintenance. Clutterbuck has a goal in eleven games for the Islanders so far this season and his absence could pave the way for Ross Johnston to get some games in on the team’s fourth line.
New York Islanders Recall Robin Salo
Nov 7: After playing yesterday for Bridgeport, Salo is back up with the Islanders today. He’ll be available for them tonight against the Calgary Flames.
Nov 6: The New York Islanders announced a roster move this morning, sending defenseman Robin Salo to their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders. This is not the first time this season that Salo has been sent to the AHL, although he is yet to play a game in Bridgeport this year.
Salo, now 24, was the Islanders’ top draft pick at the 2017 draft, getting selected 46th overall. At the time, Salo was seen as a safer selection, having already established himself as a regular contributor in his native Finland’s top professional league.
Since that point, the Islanders have been extremely patient with Salo’s development, and he spent a full half-decade playing as a regular Liiga defenseman before finally making the jump to North American pro hockey last season.
In 2021-22, Salo played 40 games in Bridgeport and 21 on Long Island, scoring 20 points at the AHL level and five in the NHL. This year Salo has played in just four of the Islanders’ games, and has lost out a regular spot next to partner Scott Mayfield in favor of veteran Sebastian Aho.
The Islanders did not announce a corresponding call-up after this move, hinting at the possibility that this send-down is merely a paper transaction to bank cap space for the trade deadline. The move leaves the Islanders with just six defensemen on their active roster, so unless the team plans to call up a different blueliner the paper transaction would seem like the most likely explanation for this move.
That being said, the possibility that the Islanders simply prefer to get the young Salo some time in Bridgeport to keep him from spending too long as a healthy scratch cannot be ruled out.