Islanders Off-Season Review: May and June Edition

The calendar has officially flipped from August to September. The summer month has ended, and the Islanders will play a pre-season game in exactly three weeks. In the coming weeks, we will have full coverage of training, roster evaluations, predictions, and all. But as the month starts, it’s best to look back at the summer that was and evaluate how the Islanders faired in the summer market.

May:

After being dumped out of the playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes for the second straight summer, the Islanders went ahead and started some changes early. The organization went shopping in Europe.

First, after another disappointing season from Jakub Skarek, the organization signed goaltender Marcus Hogberg. Hogberg, 29, is a former third-round pick of the Ottawa Senators. He replaces Ken Appleby in Bridgeport, who left this past summer as a free agent.

Hogberg has proven NHL experience, though his stats don’t make for a ringing endorsement. He had a 3.39 GAA with an .894 SV% in 42 games from 2019-2021. Now, he was on the 2019-2021 Ottawa Senators, so he wasn’t getting much help. Nevertheless, the veteran AHL goalie received a two-year deal.

That was the appetizer of the May moves, however. On May 16, the Islanders inked highly-touted Russian forward Maxim Tsyplakov to a deal, fending off other interested teams, rumored to be over a dozen.

Tsyplakov, 25, scored over 30 goals in the KHL last season and joined the Islanders with a real opportunity on the wing of Brock Nelson. The forward has received a lot of fanfare, with some projections even having him penciled in as the second-line left winger. That may end up looking premature, though, as the Islanders do not have the cap space to keep him on the NHL roster.

Moving on or burying Oliver Wahlstrom could create that space, but Tsyplakov must earn his spot in the NHL, first.

During the last week of August, the Islanders struck a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Islanders tried their first and second-round picks (18th and 50th overalls) to the Blackhawks in exchange for three picks, selections 20, 54, and 61. Moving down two spots in round one and four in round two saw the Islanders net a free second-round pick pick.

The move raised eyebrows at the time, with most people suspecting both teams, particularly the Islanders, had more up their sleeves.

Finally, in May, Mitch Korn left the organization to reunite with Barry Trotz in Nashville.  The downstream effect of that saw Bridgeport goaltending coach Chris Terreri receive a promotion to the Islanders’ Director of Goaltending. His vacant job went to Sergei Naumovs, Ilya Sorokin’s goalie coach from Russia.

June:

The month of the NHL Draft led to rampant speculation about the Islanders’ plans, with Wahlstrom on the block and potentially others as well.

The first notable move of the month was the Islanders’ announcement that Kyle MacLean agreed to terms on a three-year deal at the current league minimum. MacLean’s deal is extremely team-friendly and one that ensures his place on the NHL squad this fall.

Then came the NHL Draft. The Islanders held the 20th overall pick. Rumors swirled about Nikolaj Ehlers and Rutger McGroarty.

The added second-rounded added some fuel. Then, Lamoriello did something he hadn’t done since 2019. He kept his first-round pick. By doing so, he added a blue-chip prospect in Cole Eiserman. Eiserman immediately became the Islanders’ top prospect and will report to BU this fall.

Joining him there will be one of the two second-round picks from the Islanders- Kamil Bednarik. They also drafted over-ager Jesse Pulkkinen, a monster at 6’6 and expected to join the Islanders at training camp this month.

After the draft ended, Lamoriello met with the media and announced Doug Houda had not been retained as an assistant coach for Patrick Roy’s staff.

Review

It was hard to view the offseason negatively through the end of June. Yes, the team still needed a top-six winger, who they did end up signing. But they added the necessary prospects to the pool all while adding some potential high-end depth from Europe in Tsyplakov.