Islanders prospects daily: Anatoly Golyshev pointless streak

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TORONTO, ON – JANUARY 4: New York Islanders prospect Anatoli Golyshev #15 of Team Russia (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

Here’s your daily recap, update, and rankings for New York Islanders prospects and players within the system.

This is the second post of what should be a daily update on New York Islanders prospects and players within the system.

If you want to catch up on the first update and get a bit of background on what these are going to be all about here’s a link to that first update.

Prospect Update from Yesterday

Anatoly Golyshev (Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist)

Avto lost game four of their opening-round patch up against Avangard Omsk by a score of 4-3 thanks to a double-overtime winner by Ilya Kovalchuk. The Yekaterinburg side is now down 3-1 and facing elimination.

I had previously incorectlly stated that Golyshev’s pointless streak was up to 14 after the loss in game four. Golyshev didn’t play in game 4 due to injury. His pointless streak is still at 14 games.

Note yesterday’s post:

I indicated that William Dufour wasn’t playing due to injury but that I hadn’t received word from the team on what the injury was or what the timetable for return might be. Today I received a little more clarification on the Isles fifth-round pick.

The team told me they are waiting for the swelling around Dufour’s knee before they can get some imaging done and assessed the severity of the injury.

Their head coach indicated after that game against Val-d’Or that Dufour will miss some time. As in this may take a while to heal.

New York Islanders prospect Ruslan Iskhakov. Photo property of TPS. Used by permission of Eero Tuominen (TPS Head of Marketing and Communications). /

Prospects (and players in the system) in Action Today

Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS)
Henrik Tikkanen (KalPa)*
Josh Ho-Sang (Linkoping)**
Robin Salo (Orebro)

*Tikkanen is the backup today so he won’t likely play, but could if things go poorly.
**I don’t count Josh Ho-Sang as a prospect but because he’s still under contract with the Isles I’ll continue to follow him.

Ruslan Iskhakov: Iskhakov’s start to life in Finland was a little slow but it’s pickup significantly since the turn of the year the Isles 2018 second-round pick has 19 points in 22 games. To illustrate that more, he has six points in January (0.857 PP/G), ten in February (0.833 PP/G), and three in March (1.00 PP/G).

When I last spoke with his head-coach (and former Islanders) Raimo Helminen, he told me that Iskhakov is a different player from the start of the year and totally trusts him in the d-zone now.

Henrik Tikkanen: Since moving up a league from Finland’s B-league (Mestis) to the A-League (Liiga), Tikkanen has been excellent posting a 2-2-1 record and averaging a 1.91GAA and 0.929SV%. Outstanding stuff from the 2020 seventh-rounder.

It’s only a loan but he’s making the best of his opportunity and is proving he can play at the top level in Finland.

Josh Ho-Sang: He’s already got two goals on the season for Linkoping. He’s only played four games. His ice-time is a little low for a “top-line” player, but that will come as he gets closer to game shape.

Robin Salo: The most recent Islanders signee, has seen his ice-time start to tick upward as the season progresses towards the SHL playoffs. He’s only hit 20+ minutes twice in the last seven games, both came in his last two.

New York Islanders forward Joshua Ho-Sang (66) (Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports) /

Prospect Rankings and Movement

With only one player in action yesterday there wasn’t much movement. Without a point to though, Golyshev’s ranking would have dropped (although marginally). Remember, my ranking is based on scoring rates.

Here’s how all four players playing today rank:

Ruslan Iskhakov: 7th OVR
Henrik Tikkanen: N/A
Josh Ho-Sang: N/A
Robin Salo: 5th OVR

First, let me address the “N/A”. As a goalie, Henrik Tikkanen doesn’t yet rank. I haven’t found a way to add goalies to this ranking just yet. They will be added soon, I’m just working on a way to equate goalie stats to goals and helpers for skaters.

The second “N/A” is Josh Ho-Sang. He doesn’t factor in this ranking because of his age. I don’t count players who are 24 years old or older.

Salo’s quality is well documented so there’s shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s ranked fourth overall. He’ll certainly move up those rankings quickly once he starts playing in North America.

Iskhakov is a bit less understood around Islanders fans. The former UConn skater is scoring well in Finland which is a pretty high-quality league add his 42 points in 64 games for Hockey East’s UConn and you can see why the Russian center is up in the top ten for the Isles. There’s also something unflattering to be said about the quality of the Islanders system.

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