Islanders prospects daily: End of 2021 and NHL call ups

The 2021 season is over for New York Islanders prospects. Only two remained in action as of yesterday, Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS) and Reece Newkirk (Portland Winterhawks).

Iskhakov and his TPS side fell 6-2 to Lukko in the Liiga finals. Meaning their best-of-five series ended with Lukko taking the championship by three games to one.

For his part, Iskhakov had one point in the series. It came in the opening game of the finals. The only game TPS won. He was held off the scoresheet in the final three games. Clearly, the plan for Lukko was to keep the Russian forward quiet to get a win. And it worked.

Here is his production over the season:

Regular season: 54 games, 10 goals, 28 assists, 38 points
Playoffs: 13 games, 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points

Like I’ve said for a while now, I expect him to get something signed with the Islanders for the 21-22 season. We’ll see how long it takes for that deal to be worked out.

Reece Newkirk ended his season with a 5-3 win over the Tri-City Americans. He didn’t get a point but finished with a 79.6 FOW%. His production rate (1.13 pts/G) took a bit of a dip from last year when he scores 1.18 points per game.

Regression (at the same level) could be a sign that something could be off with a prospect. I won’t go that far just yet. The interrupted season could be a big factor. But this is something to consider next year when he (just like Iskhakov) is playing at the pro-level in the AHL.

New York Islanders bring players up from minors

NHL Call Ups

The New York Islanders made a number of call-ups from the minors to the NHL yesterday. They did so to give their roster enough cover in case of an injury but also to give the practice squad a bit more depth.

In total they called up eight players from the Bridgeport Islanders to the NHL:

1. Grant Hutton (RD)
2. Simon Holmstrom (RW)
3. Samuel Bolduc (LD)
4. Anatolii Golyshev (LW)
5. Otto Koivula (C)
6. Bode Wilde (RD)
7. Cole Bardreau (C)
8. Ken Appleby (G)
9. Dmytro Timashov (LW)

With taxi squads no longer a thing the players who were on the squad will also remain with the team. For the Isles that was:

1. Kieffer Bellows
2. Austin Czarnik
3. Thomas Hickey