Islanders prospects daily: Blade Jenkins big day out for Sound Tigers

Here’s you’re daily New York Islanders prospects report. You’ll find out who played yesterday (and how they did), who’s playing today (and what to look for), and every few updates I’ll tell you how these prospects have moved up (or down) in my prospects rankings.

Prospects in action yesterday (24/4/21)

• Reece Newkirk (Winterhawks)
  • Stats: 2A, 2SOG, 63 FOW%
  • Season stats: 15GP, 7G, 11A, 18Pts
• Bridgeport Sound Tigers
  • Blade Jenkins: 1G, 1A, 1SOG
  • Bobo Carpenter: 1G, 1A, 4SOG

Arnaud Durandeau didn’t make the score sheet yesterday, but a few other Islanders prospects sure did. Both Blade Jankins and Bobo Carpenter put up two points in the Sound Tigers third win in as many games. Something they haven’t done since November 27, 2019 (they had a four-game winning streak).

For Jenkins, this was his first multi-point game of his pro career. The 2018 fifth-round pick. It’s been slow going, but he now has three points in nine games on his season. The production has shot him up my prospect rankings.

Before yesterday he was the 17th prospect in the pool and is now 11th. A small sample size of games will do that so it will be interesting to see how things progress over the rest of the short AHL season and into next year. Jenkins has two more years on his ELC after this.

New York Islanders prospects in action today (25/4/21)

• Robin Salo (Orebro)
• Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS)
• Matias Rajaniemi (Pelicans)
• Reece Newkirk (Winterhawks)

This is the busiest day for Islanders prospects in some time. There are four prospects in action today. The big game of the day is certainly TPS vs. Pelicans. It’s game five of their first-round matchup in the SM-Liiga playoffs.

TPS had the Lahden side on the ropes in Game 4 but Rajaniemi and his squad pushed for a final game five with a 5-3 win. Whoever wins today progresses to the next round.

Salo is skating in Game 3 of his second-round matchup against Vaxjo. These are two very well-drilled teams with strong defensive structures it’s not going to be a quick series as evidenced by a 1-1 series through two games. This one could go a full five games.

Note: The QMJHL playoffs have begins today for some of the Quebec-based teams. William Dufour’s Voltigeur squad made the playoff but won’t start till the 27th. There’s hope that Dufour will be able to return for the playoffs. But when I spoke with the team recently they simply said: “He’s still on the injured list”.

At this time of year, teams are fairly reserved with what they release when it comes to injuries so no surprise with that fairly muted response.

Dufour has been out since March 6. Dufour was on fire for the Voltigeurs with 32 points in 17 games this season before missing time due to this injury.