Islanders prospects daily: Arnaud Durandeau’s big day/week

I’ll skip ahead a little here, there are no New York Islanders prospects in action today. The SM-Liiga playoffs have yet to being, the second round of the SHL playoffs haven’t started yet, the college season has been over for a few weeks, and the Bridgeport Sound Tigres just played yesterday.

So today, let’s go over what the Sound Tigers did and how some of the prospects down there are down.

Specifically, a former sixth-round pick from 2017 Arnaud Durandeau who’s had himself quite the week.

New York Islanders prospects in action yesterday

• Bridgeport Sound Tigers
  • Arnaud Durandeau (LW)
    • Stats: 1G (GWG), 1A, 2SOG
    • Season stats: 9GP, 3G, 2A, 5Pts
  • Otto Koivula (C)
    • Stats: 2A, 2SOG
    • Season stats: 15GP, 1G, 6A, 7Pts
    •  Samuel Bolduc (D)
      • Stats: 1A, 2SOG
      • Season stats: 18GP, 4G, 6A, 10Pts

      What a week it’s been for Arnaud Durandeau, the former Halifax Moosehead forward was previously been a healthy scratch for the Sound Tigers. But with a few players being moved out to ECHL squads, Durandeau has found more consistent playing time. And he’s used it well.

      Yesterday, he put up two points. One being this game-winning goal on a nice breakaway.

      Don't mind us, just spending intermission watching Arnaud Durandeau's goal on repeat ?? pic.twitter.com/G9exVijl9l

      — Bridgeport Islanders (@AHLIslanders) April 17, 2021

      Add a helper on a Dmytro Timashov power-play goal and Durandeau had the third multi-point game of his pro career. It was also his second multi-point game in three nights. Over his last three games, he has four points.

      We’ll see if he can keep up this productivity, but this is more like the player we saw in his final year of junior when he put up 28 goals and 73 points for the Moosehead.

      With this production, Durandeau is creeping up to Otto Koivula in my depth chart. At the moment, Duradeau is tenth for prospects.

      Samuel Bolduc continues to impress in his first pro-season. The young defenseman shares the lead for production with Cole Bardreau who picked up his eighth goal of the season yesterday.

      Bolduc may be ready sooner rather than later, but I suspect Robin Salo is still ahead of him in the Islanders internal depth chart. He’s certainly ahead of him on mine. Salo ranks 4th, while Bolduc is 6th for all Islanders prospects.

      Yesterday’s 4-0 was easily the best Sound Tigers game I’ve seen for some time. They were excellent defensively, their goalie came up with the stops they needed and when they needed them, and, more importantly, the offense dominated play throughout the game.

      The Sound Tigers had been building towards a strong performance over the last few games. Hopefully, there’s more to come from the worst team in the AHL.