Islanders: Explaining the New Taxi Squad Rules

The NHL has paused their season and it looks like, as of now, the next time the New York Islanders will play is on Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings. There are rumors that the NHL season won't start back up until January 1 though.

Anyway, one of the things the league is implementing is a taxi squad that is starting today and will run through the all-star break. Here are the rules of the taxi squad

Dates

Begins on December 26, 2021

For Islanders, ends February 1, 2021

Player Limits

Max of six players per team

No minimum number of players

No player shall be on the taxi squad for more than 20 cumulative days

Ineligible Players

Players who were on the team's active roster, IR, or designated non-roster on December 22.

Players exempt from regular season waivers

Players who have been on an NHL roster for 54 days between October 23 and December 22 or participated in 16 of their team's last 20 games.

Islanders Taxi Squad

As of right now, the Islanders have added three players to the taxi squad: Cole Bardreau, Simon Holmstrom, and Grant Hutton. Bardreau played 10 games with the Islanders in 2019-2020 with two points and in 10 games for Bridgeport this year, he has six points (4 goals, 2 assists).

Simon Holmstrom is a former first-round pick from two years ago. He's taken a nice step forward in the AHL this year putting up 15 points in 28 games for the Bridgeport Islanders. Finally, Gran Hutton is a familiar face from the last COVID outbreak.

Hutton played in five games for the Islanders, and was fine for them on the blue line. His play in Bridgeport this year has been excellent though. He has nine points in 17 games and is relied upon a ton defensively.

These three are proven AHL players at this point so to see them get the nod on the taxi squad shouldn't be a surprise. With the recent outbreak, we'll see if the Islanders need to play any of these guys.