Islanders put Anatolii Golyshev on unconditional waivers

Today, the New York Islanders placed prospect Anatolii Golyshev on unconditional waivers in order to terminate his contract. It's expected that he'll sign with a KHL club.

In 15 games at the AHL level, Golyshev had five goals and two assists. Most of that production came in the first six games of his AHL career. In the back nine, he put up just a single point.

New York Islanders place Anatolii Golyshev on unconditional waivers

But he still earned a call up to the Islanders at the end of November. By then the Isles were in the thick of their COVID outbreak with seven players on the COVID protocol list. But still, he couldn't get a spot on the team.

You'd think that with the need for bodes the Isles would have tried Golyshev out for at least a game? They didn't. The sense was that Golyshev wasn't quite ready. Even though he was called up to the NHL for arguably "being ready".

The situation is quite confusing. On the one side, it's not as if Golyshev was tearing up the AHL. Again, the Russian forward was under half-a-point per game on average and only had one point over his last seven AHL games before being called up.

But he was called up to the NHL. Clearly, Lou Lamoriello (in concert with Barry Trotz I assume) decided to call up Golyshev to see what he had in the NHL because they thought he was ready for it and that never really materialized.

Trotz got to see Golyshev in practice with the call-up, but he's seen him practice before. In training camp, Trotz praised the forward for his effort, level of detail, and impact. It's hard to imagine that changed much between when Trotz made the comments in October and when Golyshev was called up at the end of November.

It's a confusing situation that is now over. Of course, these things don't always work out. It's not an upsetting situation. Just, again, a bit confusing. Golyshev, a fourth-rounder from 2016 will (likely) return to Russia to play out his career in the KHL.