Islanders Assign Players to AHL Bridgeport, ECHL Stockton Before Preseason Finales vs. Senators

The New York Islanders announced moves for their minor league affiliates that help clear up who will go to their new ECHL affiliate in Stockton, Calif., as well as who is in the pool of players to fill out the split squads for their final preseason games Sunday night against the Senators in Ottawa and Barrie.

Heading to the Stockton Thunder are the following:

Mathieu Coderre-Gagnon- D
Nathan Deck- D
Sean Escobedo- D
Ryan Hayes- F
Nick Larson- F
Parker Milner- G
Shawn Mortin-Boutin- D
Landon Olslanski- D
Ben Rosen- F

Defensemen Rosen and Escobedo are former Boston University teammates signed to Bridgeport, with Rosen having played one game for the Sound Tigers last year after the NCAA season ended.

They'll have to help defend a former rival: Boston College goalie Parker Milner, who was named the Outstanding Player of the 2012 Frozen Four when BC took the title. None of those are surprises really, and Milner was an interesting signing over the summer who will hopefully get good pro minutes with Stockton.

The Islanders also assigned seven players who were in NHL camp down to Bridgeport, which clears up who will be available to fill out the split squads in Ontario on Sunday. Their technical assignments are in parentheses below, but that's just paperwork with Clark, Cantin and Pedan all being on NHL two-way contracts, while the others are on AHL deals:

Jason Clark- F (Loaned to Bridgeport)
Marc Cantin- D (Loaned to Bridgeport)
Andrey Pedan- D (Loaned to Bridgeport)
Greg Miller- F (Released from NHL amateur tryout contract)
Mike Dalhuisen- D (Released from NHL amateur tryout contract)
Mike Keenan- D (Released from NHL amateur tryout contract)
Dallas Jackson- D (Released from NHL professional tryout contract)

In anticipation of Monday's roster deadline, as expected the Islanders also put Cal Clutterbuck on Injured Reserve due to the laceration of his leg suffered in the preseason opener.

So, who's left in camp and eligible for Sunday's games? Quite a few actually:

(Note: With some exceptions these are not actual lines/pairings nor the roster divisions for Sunday; I've grouped them this way simply for eyeballing them more easily)

Forwards

Matt Moulson - John Tavares - Josh Bailey
Michael Grabner - Frans Nielsen - Kyle Okposo
Brock Nelson - Peter Regin - Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Colin McDonald

Eric Boulton - Ryan Strome - Anders Lee
John Persson - Johan Sundstrom - Kirill Kabanov
Alan Quine - Chris Bruton - Brett Gallant
Joey Diamond - Riley Wetmore - Mike Halmo
Justin Johnson (PTO)

Defense

Andrew MacDonald - Travis Hamonic
Lubomir Visnovsky - Thomas Hickey
Brian Strait - Matt Donovan

Matt Carkner - Griffin Reinhart
Ryan Pulock - Radek Martinek (PTO)
Calvin de Haan - Aaron Ness
Joe Finley - Scott Mayfield

Goalies

Evgeni Nabokov - Kevin Poulin
Anders Nilsson - Kenny Reiter

So just about the right amount of bodies to ice two squads against the Senators. But they will have to mix differently than above; remember the CBA rule about having at least eight "veterans" (plus this summer's first-round pick, Pulock) in the lineup. Draw up your ideal scenarios accordingly.