Islanders prospects report: Closer look at NCAA group

In the latest New York Islanders prospects report, I wanted to take a closer look at the prospects currently playing in the NCAA.

I focused a lot of my attention on the New York Islanders prospects playing out in Europe. I focused on them so much that I forgot the collegiate season had begun.

Collegiate hockey isn’t something that I’ve paid a lot of attention to in any given season before. So I’m taking this opportunity with no NHL hockey to dig in and watch some college hockey as I follow along with some of the Isles prospects playing there.

NCAA Group

Christian Krygier (D | Michigan State)
Season stats: 6GP, 1G, 1pt
Draft: 

Don’t look for impressive point totals, Krygier is a defensive-defenseman who rarely gets on the scoresheet. Although he did score his first career collegiate goal a few nights back. The 6’2″ blueliner is a good shutdown guy, even if his squad ranks at the bottom of the Big Ten Conference with an 0-3-1 record.

Jacob Pivonka (C | Notre Dame)
Season stats: 6GP, 1G, 2A, 3pts
Draft: 2018 4th round

Pivonka put up his first goal of the campaign in a 5-4 win over Arizona State last Friday. The junior is hoping to take another step forward this season for the Fighting Irish.

Alex Jefferies (LW | Merrimack College)
Season stats: 2GP, 1G, 2A, 3pts
Draft: 2020 4th round

Jefferies was the last of the 2020 draftees to play this season. As a fourth-round pick, we didn’t know what to expect. He had good numbers in his draft year with 118 points in 63 games but still, we needed to manage expectations.

Jefferies is making that complicated with a great start to life with Merrimack. In his opening two games, Jefferies has three points including his first career goal at the collegiate level. A goal the shows off that speed we keep hearing about.

Look, he’s a freshman and has only played two games so far but I’m officially excited about this kid as should you.

Collin Adam (University of North Dakota)
Season stats: 3GP, 3A, 3pts
Draft: 2016 6th round

Adams had a strong year last season where he quadrupled his production from seven points in 2018-19 to 28 points last season. Now in his senior year, Adams is hoping to take another step forward with UND.

Over the summer, Adams showed he could be a goal scorer for UND during informal scrimmages, but hasn’t been able to find the back of the net just yet.

Logan Cockerill (LW | Boston University)
Season stats: N/A
Draft: 2017 7th round

On December 3rd, there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 within BU’s Tier 1 program. Putting the start to the 20-21 season on hold for another 10-14 days at least.

Cockerill who was named team captain in March had his 19-20 season cut short due to injury and then stopped early because of the pandemic. It’s probably an understatement to say he wants to get back on the ice as soon as safely possible.

Ben Mirageas (D | Providence)
Season stats: 2GP, 0pts
Draft: 2017 3rd round

Mirageas is one of only two blueliners who were with the Friars last season. He’s also a senior this year and could (and likely will) become a free agent if he has less than a standout season this year.

Rest of Prospect Pool

Oliver Wahlstrom (AIK)
Season stats: 9GP, 4G, 3A, 7pts

Since coming back from a longer-than-anticipated injury Oliver Wahsltrom has contributed well with three points (2 goals and 1 assist) in as many games.

I don’t think a recall will happen until the last possible second. AIK has six games over the next 13 days, after missing a few weeks Wahlstrom (and the Isles) will certainly want to get that game time in before gettign recalled.

Alexander Ljungkrantz (Brynas)
Season stats:
J20 – 16GP, 8G, 7A, 15pts
SHL – 8GP, 0pts, 3:07ATOI

His average ice time has gone by almost a full minute thanks to a nine minute outting on December 3rd. He’s hasn’t scored but I don’t think we should be looking at his stint in the SHL as a failure if he doesn’t score. He’s getting playing time while the J20 league is on hold. So any game time is good.

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Other prospects playing around the world within the New York Islanders system (note that teams in Finland aren’t currently playing until December 26 at the earliest):

Robin Salo (Orebro): 18GP, 2G, 7A, 9pts, 23:11 ATOI
Anatoly Golyshev (Avtomobilist): 26GP, 9G, 12A, 21pts
Reece Newkirk (Melville Millionaires | SJHL): 12GP, 4G, 8A, 12pts
Matias Rajaniemi (Pelicans): 18GP, 2A, 2pts,13:36ATOI
Henrik Tikkanen (IPK): 9GP, 2.55GAA, 0.901SV%
Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS): 15GP, 2G, 5A, 7pts
Jakub Skarek (Peliitat): 4GP, 4.44GAA, 0.833SV%
William Dufour (Voltigeurs): 8GP, 6G, 4A, 10pts
Otto Koivula (HIFK): 13GP, 3G, 8A, 11pts
Simon Holmstrom (Vita Hasten): 11GP, 1G, 1A, 2pts