Islanders News: The Ross Johnston move is made

The New York Islanders’ final maneuvers for their season-opening roster appeared to revolve around Simon Holmstrom and Ross Johnston, and on Monday they made a long-awaited move.

Yes, they assigned Holmstrom to Bridgeport — on paper, at least — but they also waived Johnston, a player on a long contract who rarely appeared in Barry Trotz’s lineup, rarer still under current coach Lane Lambert.

Holmstrom, meanwhile, continued to practice with a regular turn on the NHL squad, and he may have even earned first crack at wing on the top line.

Islanders News

Officially, the roster which was due to the league yesterday looks like this, though note that Johnston was placed on waivers:

FORWARDS (14)

Mathew Barzal
Casey Cizikas
Cal Clutterbuck
Pierre Engvall
Hudson Fasching
Julien Gauthier
Bo Horvat
Ross Johnston
Anders Lee
Matt Martin
Brock Nelson
Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Kyle Palmieri
Oliver Wahlstrom

DEFENSEMEN (7)

Sebastian Aho
Samuel Bolduc
Noah Dobson
Scott Mayfield
Adam Pelech
Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov

GOALTENDERS (2)

Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov

• Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall, the key additions since a year ago this time, experienced their first Islanders training camp. [Isles]
• Dan and Mike discuss camp stories and the season ahead on the latest Islanders Anxiety podcast. [LHH]
• Following knee surgery, Oliver Wahlstrom is still playing catch-up. [Post]
• Nine of 13 games at home to open season is a refreshing change from the past few years. Don’t blow it, guys. [Post]
• Matt Martin on Johnston likely being off the team: “Unfortunately, no matter who it is, you’re losing a friend,” Martin said. “It’s a shitty part of this business. But that’s just the nature of the beast.” [THN]
• Couple days ago in Islanders history: Brent Sutter was named captain. [Isles]
• The Islanders have a thin prospect pool, but what did the top young candidates show at this year’s camp? [THN]

Elsewhere

• That seems like a lot: The Sabres extended Rasmus Dahlin for 8 years, $88 million. [AP]
• In a bit of a shock, the Jets were able to re-sign Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to identical seven-year, $8.5 million AAV extensions. [Sportsnet]
• What, exactly, are the Ducks doing? The Senators reclaimed Lassi Thomson off waivers from Anaheim. [TSN]
• One “bold” prediction for each team heading into 2023-24. [Sportsnet]
• Three long-serving Penguins will break some made-up record I know you don’t care about. [NHL]