New York Islanders Prospects Team Up In USA Win

It’s World Juniors time, and as Team USA advanced to the final, they got some help from two New York Islanders prospects in their win over Russia.

The World Juniors is always a fun time for hockey fans, as you can check out your team’s rising stars in the system while rooting for your home country. For New York Islanders fans, they got to watch Oliver Wahlstrom play last night for team USA.

USA was taking on Team Russia in the Semi-Finals last night with the winner advancing to the Final.  Team USA’s win sent them to the Gold Medal Game with a chance to win gold for the second time in three years. Team USA got off to a hot start thanks to Islanders prospect Oliver Wahlstrom.

Wahlstrom got USA on the board with a one-timer past Pyotr Kochetkov with 5:31 left in the first period.

Wahlstrom is known for his scoring and the Isles were giddy when he inexplicably fell to 11th for Lou Lamoriello to snag in the past draft. Last year playing in the USDP he scored 48 goals and put up a whopping 94 points in 62 games.

Yes, Wahlstrom has struggled a bit at the collegiate level but that tends to happen. Look at what happened with Kieffer Bellows a couple of years ago when he was at Boston University. Bellows struggled and then found his groove in the OHL the next year.

Interestingly enough, Wahlstrom wasn’t the only Islander in on this play. Logan Cockerill fed Oliver Wahlstrom with the pass, and Cockerill is a former seventh-round pick from the Islanders 2017 draft class.

Cockerill is a left winger playing at Boston University. Last year, in his first year at the collegiate level he had 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) in 37 games. So far this year he has five in 16 games played.

It’s always great when you see a couple of prospects put in work on the big stage. While Wahlstrom is more likely to pan out than Cockerill, it certainly gives a fun look into the future of the Islanders franchise.