Islanders trim their roster by 19 players, likely leaving one more cut
Islanders coach Lane Lambert speaks during the training camp in East Meadow on Friday, September 22, 2023. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
As much as the Islanders’ opening-night roster is essentially clear, so is the work that needs to be done in the next week.
The Islanders trimmed 19 players from their training camp roster before their varsity lost to the Devils’ JV, 3-0, on Friday night at UBS Arena in the preseason finale. That leaves them with 24 players, and the initial 23-man roster must be submitted by Monday at 5 p.m.
Most likely, with the two goalies and seven defensemen set, one forward will be trimmed. That probably leaves a choice between Simon Holmstrom, Oliver Wahlstrom and Ross Johnston as the final cut. Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre Engvall, Hudson Fasching, Julien Gauthier, Bo Horvat, Anders Lee, Matt Martin, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kyle Palmieri seem like roster locks.
Against the Devils, Holmstrom skated on Horvat’s right wing — with Barzal flipping to left wing as an experiment — and Wahlstrom was on Pageau’s right wing along with Lee. Holmstrom is the only forward who does not have to pass through waivers to be reassigned to the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport.
The Islanders will open their season against the visiting Sabres on Oct. 14.
“The last exhibition game is always a tough one to play,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Guys are looking forward to next weekend. In order to generate more, we had to be harder and we weren’t hard enough. We didn’t have enough traffic in front of the net.”
The Islanders went 0-for-4 with six shots on the power play and yielded a shorthanded goal. They finished the preseason 2-for-18 with the man advantage.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Nelson said. “The positive side is we have a couple of days to figure it out. It didn’t feel we executed cleanly to have sustained possession. We didn’t sustain much pressure to generate enough chances.”
Defensively, Sebastian Aho skated with Scott Mayfield as the third pair with Adam Pelech-Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov-Ryan Pulock comprising the top four. Samuel Bolduc, a second-round pick in 2019 who struggled through camp, likely will open as the seventh defenseman rather than being exposed to waivers.
Defensemen Aidan Fulp, Travis Mitchell and Calle Odelius and forwards William Dufour, Ruslan Iskhakov, Eetu Liukas, Kyle MacLean, Matt Maggio and Reece Newkirk were assigned to Bridgeport.
Goalies Ken Appleby and Jakub Skarek, defensemen Dennis Cholowski, Grant Hutton, Paul LaDue and Robin Salo and forwards Arnaud Durandeau, Otto Koivula, Karson Kuhlman and Brian Pinho will join them if they clear waivers — as is expected — on Saturday.
Notes & quotes: Palmieri logged 14:12 with two shots in his preseason debut after missing the first two weeks of camp with an undisclosed injury. “I liked him,” Lambert said. “He looked like a power forward tonight.” . . . Ilya Sorokin made 27 saves . . . Engvall and Fasching are day-to-day because of maintenance . . . The Islanders finished the preseason 2-4-0 with three straight losses.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
More Islanders
