New York Islanders Cuts: It’s Down to Barzal and Beauvillier

The New York Islanders made more cuts to their training camp roster, trimming the roster to 27 of 23 available places. Two big name prospects were sent down to Bridgeport, while another two remain with the team.

Both Joshua Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle were cut by the New York Islanders today. Both are former first-round picks made by the Islanders in 2014 and both had a good training camp. But it seems the Islanders are honed in on two first rounder’s from 2015.

Being assigned to Bridgeport might sound like a step back, but consider that both Dal Colle and Ho-Sang could have been returned to their juniors teams. A step that would have been useless for their development.

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Both have been dominant players in the OHL over the length of their juniors careers. Sending these players to Bridgeport is an actual step up in where they get to play against men rather than kids. Don’t agree? Ask Mitch Marner how he feels about not being able to make the jump up to the AHL this year.

Barzal or Beauvillier

Not in the list of cuts are both Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier. Both are still at camp to fight it out for a roster spot. Both have looked absolutely spectacular in training camp so far. Dynamic, exciting, and productive.

They’re being tested in all types of scenarios to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Both have been given power play and penalty kill assignments, as well as offensive and defensive zone starts. They may not have excelled in each case, but the team likes what they’ve seen from these 19 year-olds so far. 

But with an already loaded roster, three to four other players need to be moved to Bridgeport or placed on some sort of holding status to make room on the active roster for one or both.

Shane Prince is out with a lower-body injury and might be placed on injured reserve. Lowering the magic number to two or three. Alan Quine could be sent through the waiver wire with fingers crossed that no one notices he`s a decent hockey player. That leaves one to two players.

One of Ryan Pulock or Adam Pelech is going to go back down for the season. Both have two-way deals so there`s no waiver risk. Before bringing in Dennis Seidenberg it looked like the Isles might just carry both into the season. But Snow needed his veteran Cup-winning presence on the blue line. I guess having Boychuk and Leddy with rings isn’t enough.

Must Read: I Predicted the Seidenberg Deal

Waiver Wire Risk

At this point, if the Isles still can’t decide between Barzal and Beauvillier they’ll need to make one more cut.

Jean-Francois Berube, the third string goaltender has to be the next one on the list. Just like Mayfield he also just signed a one-way deal in the offseason. If he’s going to join Chris Gibson in Bridgeport he’ll have to clear waivers too.

There’s a real risk the Islanders could lose him through waivers. Berube has been great in training camp and looks to be a great backup. The San Jose Sharks need a backup after letting go of James Reimer in free-agency. And with a fantastic $675k cap hit the Sharks might just…bite.

Next: Parenteau a Placeholder for Ho-Sang

So to recap; in order to get both Barzal and Beauvillier the Islanders need to: (1) place Prince on IR, (2) send Alan Quine and JF Berube to Bridgeport via waivers, and (3) reassign Adam Pelech to Bridgeport. That brings the active roster to 23 and we get to see two first round draft picks that didn`t originally belong to the Islanders light-up the league in the Orange and Blue.