Keeping up with flurry of Islanders roster moves

Chicago Blackhawks v New York Islanders
Chicago Blackhawks v New York Islanders / Bruce Bennett/GettyImages
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It's the first game in ten days for the New York Islanders. And keeping with the time the Isles made a bunch of roster moves ahead of the game against the Buffalo Sabres. So, in order for all of us to keep up, here are all the moves.

First, the players off the COVID list. For some reason, the list seems to be changing by the hour leading up to puck drop. But, the official count is that four players have come off the COVID protocol list: Matt Martin, Robin Salo, Cal Clutterbuck, and Zach Parise.

New York Islanders make a number of roster moves ahead of return to action

Parise was the latest addition to the COVID free list of players. Which forces one of the taxi squad guys who may have hoped to get in, to take their seat in the press box tonight.

So then, with talking about who's out of their COVID hold we have to mention who's still in their COVID hold. That list holds a few key players for the Islanders: Brock Nelson, Anthony Beauvillier, and Oliver Wahlstrom are all still out with COVID. Added to the list today is defenseman Sebastian Aho.

That's numbers two and three in points on the team out (Wahlstrom and Nelson, respectively). And second-line winger Anthony Beauvillier. Aho being out means Robin Salo gets a clear spot on the blue line for a few games.

Now to talk about the guys who are up from Bridgeport. The Islanders taxi squad holds Simon Holmstrom, Austin Czarnik, Cole Bardreau, and Michael Dal Colle. And a late addition to the squad was Grant Hutton who was called back up from the B-Islanders.

Also, Kyle Palmieri was placed on IR effective December 16.

That's it those are all the moves made by the Islanders leading up to puck drop. In this era of constantly moving rosters thanks to COVID, expect more of these types of updates as we all try to remember who's in and who's out.

Based on pre-game warm ups here are the lines tonight (in bold are taxi squad players):
Lee-Barzal-Bailey
Bellows-Pageau-Dal Colle
Parise-Czarnik-Johnston
Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck

Chara-Dobson
Pelech-Mayfield
Salo-Greene

Varlamov (Sorokin)