Islanders prospects daily: Robin Salo back to playing big minutes

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CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 24: Robin Salo poses for a portrait after being selected 46th overall by the New York Islanders during the 2017 NHL Draft at the United Center on June 24, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

Here’s your daily recap of yesterday’s games, updates, and rankings for New York Islanders prospects and players within the system.

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

You’ll find an update on stats from prospects in action yesterday, a round up of who’s playing today, and I’ll tell you how some of those prospects in action yesterday are doing in my prospects rankings.

Prospect Update from Yesterday

Josh Ho-Sang (Linkoping)
- Stats: N/A
Robin Salo (Orebro)
- 1SOG, 21:31TOI

Again, Josh Ho-Sang wasn’t on the ice for Linkoping. They didn’t necessarily need him it seems as they ran away with the score with a 5-3 win against the top team in the league. I’ve reached out to Linkoping GM Niklas Persson for some clarification on the decision to bring him in and then keep him out. I’m waiting for an answer at the time of writing.

With a few players coming back from injury and with Ho-Sang seemingly not playing well defensively, that might just be it. We’ll see what the GM has to say.

Robin Salo has been a key cog for Orebro all season long. Not only does he put up points, but the recent Islanders signee plays big minutes. Yesterday, the 22-year-old played 21:31 of total ice time.

He led his team in ice time yesterday as they picked up a solid 3-0 win with former NHL’er Jonas Enroth stopping all 34 shots he faced.

Matias Rajaniemi #12 (Photo by Codie McLachlan/Getty Images) /

Prospects (and players in the system) in Action Today

Matias Rajaniemi (Pelicans)
Henrik Tikkanen (KalPa)*
Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS)
Collin Adams (UND)

Just like Robin Salo, Matias Rajaniemi has been playing big minutes for the Lahti Pelicans. He’s averaging 18:19 this month and played 21:17 in his last outing. What makes that more impressive is how Rajaniemi only turns 19 in September.

He’s playing big minutes for a top team in one of the better leagues in the world. I don’t think I need to explain to you why that’s a good thing for the Isles sixth-rounder from 2020.

As a forward, Iskhakov isn’t getting the same ice time as Rajaniemi, but he’s damn productive with what he’s got. The Isles second-rounder from 2018 is currently on a four-game point streak and holds 28 points in 40 games.

He’s a big reason why TPS has been able to charge up the SM-Liiga standings. The Turku side sit third with 80 points from 45 games.

Collin Adams is quietly having a great year for UND. Their number one center has put up a point per game this year with 24 in 24. That’s not a career high technically, he got 28 last year, but that was in 35 games. Maybe he’s not that quiet about it, he was an honorable mention for the NCHC All-Conference teams.

Henrik Tikkanen could still be the backup, but with back-to-back games I expect him to get the nod today. I’ll speak to his GM later in the day so if he doesn’t I’ll ask him.

Simon Holmstrom poses for a portrait after being selected twenty-third overall by the New York Islanders during the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) /

Prospect Rankings and Movement

This is going to sound odd, but most of the AHL contingent of Islanders prospects had their scores go up after their 3-0 loss to Providence. How do players move up in score in a ranking based on production if they don’t produce?

My rankings work based on point-production at various levels of play. The AHL is one of the highest levels of play outside of the NHL (it goes NHL, KHL, SHL, then AHL). Every player in my rankings is given a score that is based on point-production that is weighted based on the league.

For example, in my model scoring a point-per-game is worth more in the SHL than it is in the AHL. But for most of these guys, they aren’t coming to the AHL from a “higher” league, they’re coming to the A from junior or college. Which rank lower.

So they didn’t score a point yesterday, but the scoring they have done is worth more.

William Dufour ↓ | Simon Holmstrom ↑: Which means a guy like Simon Holmstrom who had been bumped down to no.21 in my rankings by William Dufour, is now back up to no.20 even though he didn’t score a point.

The fact that Dufour and Holmstrom are neck-and-neck in the standings isn’t great for the Isles first-round pick in 2019.

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