Islanders News: ‘Pretty close’ to setting the roster

It’s Friday. NHL teams will head to their hub cities in a couple of days. Exhibition games and then the actual qualifying rounds are basically a week away.

Islanders News

• Casey Cizikas and old men Andrew Ladd and Johnny Boychuk were the Isles for yesterday’s media availability. [Isles video]
• ...and training camp updates in written form. “I’m pretty close to getting most of the roster I want to make sure I’m not missing anything,” Trotz said. “Also what it does is give you a couple of options and I think that’s important as we go into this.” [Isles]
• It was a “what if these two knees actually work?” test day for Andrew Ladd. [Newsday]
• The plan for Ilya Sorokin? “I’m privy to it but don’t care to share,” Trotz said. [Newsday]
• Preparing for the “uncomfortable.” The Islanders are trying to get into the mindset to handle odd things like back-to-back noon games. [Isles]

Kraken ‘n Stuff

• The NHL chose its moment to have everyone talk about its 32nd team, for one day, as expansion Seattle announced its name.
• Noel’s latest program, Advanced Shouting, covers the Kraken announcement with Gety Wyshynski of ESPN. [LHH]
• The announcement reminds Trotz of his expansion days in Nashville, where he was named coach well before he had a roster. [Isles]
• How the Kraken name and logo was chosen. (Uniforms, too.) [NHL | ESPN]
• Ranking all 59 team names in NHL history, according to random animal and color standards. [Down Goes Brown @ Athletic]
• Training camp buzz around the league, with updates on several key players who’ve missed time. [NHL]
• This is what life in the bubble will look like. [NHL | Athletic]

They’ll also do stuff to make each hub’s “home” games sound sort of like home games: