Islanders prospects daily: Bunch of players MIA yesterday

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

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

This is the third post of what has been a daily update on New York Islanders prospects and players within the system.

Prospect Update from Yesterday

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

So, of the four players on the “in action list” for yesterday, only one of them played. And that was Ruslan Iskhakov for TPS. The Isles second-round pick from 2018 recorded a primary assist on TPS’s opening goal of the day. A play that saw him take a heavy hit from behind along the boards.

The helper now has Iskha on a four-game point streak and puts him at 28 points on the season.

The next three players listed were all out of action for various reasons:

Robin Salo and Orebro didn’t play because of a COVID-related postponement. It seems someone for Malmo tested positive and so the game was moved to March 18.

Henrik Tikkanen – the 2020 seventh-round pick and 6’8″ goalie – was the backup for his Liiga side. In five games, he’s running a 2-2-1 record with a 1.91GAA and 0.929SV%.

Josh Ho-Sang was a healthy scratch for Linkoping in what would have been his fifth game for them. The team was quiet about the move of course, but Ho-Sang hasn’t been up to snuff in the D-zone for one of the lowest-ranked teams in the SHL. You don’t have to be a nay-sayer to know that’s not good.

Note yesterday’s post:

Yesterday I had indicated that Anatoly Golyshev’s pointless streak was up to 14 games after Avtomobilist dropped game four of their first-round matchup with Omsk. While the count is accurate (14 games without a point), that wasn’t due to his actions in game four, because he didn’t play. Golyshev picked up an injury in game three.

Russia’s Anatoly Golyshev vies for the puck with Sweden’s Malte Stromwall during the Beijer Hockey Games match between Sweden and Russia at the Ericson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 08, 2020. (Photo by Erik SIMANDER / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by ERIK SIMANDER/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images) /

Prospects (and players in the system) in Action Today

Henrik Tikkanen (KalPa)
Anatoly Golyshev (Avtomobilist)
All of Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Henrik Tikkanen should start this one for KalPa, but we won’t know until the lineup is officially announced close to 8 AM ET. On the last slide, I indicated how well Tikkanen is playing for KalPa, if that continues at the Liiga level it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Islanders try to bring him to North America for the 21-22 season.

Anatoly Golyshev was injured in game three and out for game four. It’s unclear yet if he’ll be in the lineup for game five just yet. Lineups will be announced early in the morning from Russia so keep an eye out on Twitter for that. Even if he’s at 75% I’d expect him to play with his team-facing elimination.

The Sound Tigers will get back to the ice after having a game against Hartford postponed earlier in the month. Finding consistency is hard for Bridgeport at the moment. It doesn’t help that they’ve only played one game over the last eleven days.

In terms of production two of the Islanders top prospects from the 2019 draft lead the way.

Samuel Bolduc (2019 second-round pick) leads the team with five points in seven games. Simon Holmstrom (2019 first-round pick) is second in scoring with four points in seven games played.

Dmytro Timashov – who was acquired via trade from Detroit – has three points in five games.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – JUNE 22: Samuel Bolduc poses after being selected 57th overall by the New York Islanders during the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 22, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) /

Prospect Rankings and Movement

There isn’t much movement in the standings to talk about of late (Iskhakov might be able to catch up to Parker Wotherspoon in the no.8 spot soon) so I thought I’d go over the top guys playing with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers:

Samuel Bolduc – 4th OVR
Simon Holmstrom – 20th OVR
Otto Koivula – 10th OVR
Cole Coskey – 11th OVR
Mitch Vande Sompel – 6th OVR
Bode Wilde – 7th OVR

My rankings work based on points production at every level of hockey. So while seeing Simon Holmstrom at 20th overall might look rough, we have to consider he didn’t have a great first season in the AHL in terms of scoring.

Holmstrom’s 15 points in 46 games had him scoring at a 0.33 points-per-game pace. That’s not good and is a big factor in why he’s so low. But he’s also very young. He’ll only turn 20 this May but will have two “full” seasons of AHL hockey under his belt.

Vande Sompel is up there thanks to some impressive AHL stats (174 points in 218 games) and some solid AHL number (62 points in 134 games). But he’s getting up there in age. He just turned 24 in February so he won’t be in my rankings next season.

Which is why Sebastian Aho doesn’t come up. The fifth-round pick from 2017 is 25 (as of February 17) and so isn’t considered a prospect anymore. At least not by me.

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