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Islanders prospects daily: Scoring streaks and trophies

By Michel Anderson |
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 25: <> at Nassau Coliseum on February 25, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 25: <> at Nassau Coliseum on February 25, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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TAMPA, FL – APRIL 9: The North Dakota Fighting Hawks huddle before a game against the Quinnipiac University Bobcats the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Frozen Four Championship final at the Amaile Arena on April 9, 2016 in Tampa, Florida. The Fighting Hawks won 5-1. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
TAMPA, FL – APRIL 9: The North Dakota Fighting Hawks huddle before a game against the Quinnipiac University Bobcats the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Frozen Four Championship final at the Amaile Arena on April 9, 2016 in Tampa, Florida. The Fighting Hawks won 5-1. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

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

Welcome to your daily recap for New York Islanders prospects! 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

  • Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS)
    • Yesterday’s Stats: 1A, 1SOG, 15:44TOI
    • Season totals: 43GP, 8G, 25A, 33Pts
  • Robin Salo (Orebro)
    • Yesterday’s Stats: 1A, 2SOG, 22:28TOI
    • Season totals: 49GP, 6G, 24A, 30Pts
  • Collin Adams (UND)
    • Stats: 2A, 4SOG, 53% FOW
    • Season totals: 27GP, 11G, 20A, 31Pts

The streak continues for Ruslan Iskhakov. With another helper (in yet another win for TPS), Iskhakov is on a seven-game point streak. He’s up to 25th in scoring in the Finnish league with 33 points on the year. He won’t win a scoring race, but he could easily make his way into the top 10 for scoring, which would still be a huge achievement for him.

Salo played a ton of minutes yet again and added his 24th helper of the year to boot. Unfortunately, Orebro fell to Brynas who are 13th in the 14 team league.

A big performance from UND last night as the Fighting Hawks captured their first NCHC tournament title. UND put up four goals in the third period to beat St. Cloud State 5-3. Adams now has 31 points on the year in only 27 games.

The senior has truly had a remarkable season for the top-ranked Fighting Hawks. He surpassed his point total from last year (28 points) in eight fewer games.

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

Prospects (and players in the system) in Action Today

  • Matias Rajaniemi (Pelicans)
  • Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS)
  • Alex Ljungkrantz (Stromsbro)
  • Ben Mirageas (Providence)

Rajaniemi wasn’t in the lineup for the Pelicans the last time out. A team spokesperson told me the reason was due to squad rotation. He’s in the lineup today as Lahti takes on top side Lukko. Rajaniemi is listed as the team’s top pair for this game.

It’s a bit strange to take out a top-four defender for squad rotation purposes, but Matias’s side was on a four-game winning streak at the time of the scatch. Giving the 19-year-old a rest isn’t a terrible idea.

Another game, another point for Iskhakov? Hopefully. The Isles prospect has found a good role as the team’s second-line center. The team keeps rolling with a seven-game winning streak. With a few teams out of competition for a few weeks, this stretch of strong play is going to help a lot in the finals standings which might be based on points-percentage.

Ljungkrantz has been out of action for a bit, with Stromsbro not in action for a bit and with Brynas not calling him up. The break should help Ljungkrantz whose been jumping between his SHL and HockeyEttan side constantly.

Mirageas and Providence take on UMass. Providence holds a 0-1-2 record against UMass this year. The last time they played, UMass embarrassed Mirageas’s side with an 8-1 win. Providence should be extra motivated to get something from this semi-final matchup.

Otto Koivula #21 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Otto Koivula #21 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Prospect Rankings and Movement

Robin Salo 

With a point yesterday, he’s narrowing the gap between the fourth spot in the standings and his fifth spot. Ahead of him is Mitch Vande Sompel. Remember that this is ranking is based on scoring rates only. On that alone, MVS is slightly ahead of Salo. But I’d easily rank the Finnish d-man ahead of the Isles third-round pick in 2015.

Collin Adams

To see him ranked 16th on my list is still surprising. He’s a good player who’s scored at a fairly decent rate over the last two years. He ranks next to Kyle MacLean (15) and Blade Jenkins (17) is a bit odd, both seem to be depth players for the Sound Tigers while you’d expect Adams to be able to step into a top-six role with the Isles AHL squad once he turns pro.

This just goes to show that these rankings aren’t perfect. They provide a good picture of where players are at in the system and that’s about it for now.

Otto Koivula

He’s ranked 10th in my rankings, which is quite low considering I had him sixth in my top 25 under 25 from a few months ago. His stock has taken quite a fall as a fringe player in the Islanders system. He’s bounced up and down from the AHL and NHL and was even a healthy scratch of late by Brent Thompson for what can only be performance issues.

Hopefully, he can turn it around. The big Finn had a lot of promise just a year ago.

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