Islanders make three roster moves: Thomas Hickey to taxi squad

On Friday, the New York Islanders made three moves on their roster. And by roster, I don’t mean just the 23 man active roster. These moves affected the active roster, taxi squad, and the Islanders AHL squad.

We knew that changes would be coming for the Islanders. Cory Schneider wasn’t officially signed when the rosters were released on the 14th so once his contract was submitted to the NHL, we knew moves would be made. So with Schnieder officially signed to a contract on Thursday, the Islanders made some of those expected moves.

Islanders Three (plus one-ish) Roster Moves

Jakub Skarek to Minors: With Cory Schneider signed to a contract there’s no reason to keep a fourth goalie on the team. That means Jakub Skarek, a third-round pick in 2018 will go to the AHL for the 2021 season where he’ll join recently signed Francis Marotte.

For now, Schneider remains on the 23-man active roster. With all those backup goalies getting claimed off waivers the Isles aren’t taking the chance that they might lose Schneider for nothing. That’s the “one-ish” move I referenced.

I know that sounds like Garth Snow logic, but the Isles (and the other 30 teams in the league) have to carry three goalies between the active roster and taxi squad. So this is sound logic by management.

Thomas Hickey to taxi squad: With Schneider staying on the active roster and Skarek going to the minors, the team needed to put another player on the taxi squad to hit that minimum of four players. Thomas Hickey was that player.

The veteran D-man already passed through waivers on January 11 so he didn’t need to go through them again to get on the taxi squad. He’ll still travel and practice with the Isles so this doesn’t change his standing as the seventh d-man on the rotation.

Josh Ho-Sang to Orebro: I’ve already talked about this move a lot. Here are my initial thoughts and what Orebro thinks about the player they’re getting. The loan means that Ho-Sang will be in Sweden for the remainder of the 20-21 season. Orebro’s final regular-season game is April 1,

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Regular Roster (based on the lines)

Lee-Barzal-Eberle
Beauvillier-Nelson-Bailey
Bellows-Pageau-Johnston
Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck

Pelech-Pulock
Leddy-Mayfield
Greene-Dobson

Varlamov (Sorokin)

Scratches: Leo Komarov, Sebastian Aho, Cory Schneider

Taxi Squad

For now, the Islanders taxi squad is Oliver Wahlstrom, Thomas Hickey, Otto Koivula, and Austin Czarnik. That’s the minimum of four players that the NHL requires, but it doesn’t include a goalie. Note that a goalie only needs to be included on the taxi squad if the team isn’t carrying three on the active roster, which the Isles are doing with Varlamov, Sorokin, Schneider.