NY Islanders lose Kieffer Bellows on waivers to the Philadelphia Flyers

On Wednesday, the NY Islanders placed forward Kieffer Bellows on waivers with the purpose of reassigning him to AHL Bridgeport. However, Bellows (24) was not waiver protected and was picked up by the Philadelphia Flyers. He will now report to the Flyers who have dealt with a plethora of injuries including Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, and James Van Riemsdyk.

Bellows spent three-plus seasons with the Islanders since the beginning of the 2019-20 season. He was drafted to the NHL by the organization in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, 19th overall. In 68 games with the Islanders, Bellows scored 11 goals and 14 assists.

The Islanders signed Bellows this past summer to a one-year, $1.2 million contract. The contract came as a bit of a surprise seeing that Bellows hadn't shown much of anything to earn the deal he was given. Now that the Flyers have claimed him, the Islanders have $3,783,686 in cap space.

The Islanders now have 22 players on their roster with one spot available to call a player up from AHL Bridgeport. Robin Salo seems the likely candidate to take his place back next to Scott Mayfield on the blueline, however, The Athletic's Kevin Kurz speculated yesterday that maybe the Islanders were up to something transaction-wise when before they waived Bellows.

Re: Bellows, wouldn't surprise me if Lou was trying to trade him the past few days and had no takers. Could be why he didn't play for Bailey/Beauvillier. And, it could mean that there's already a team that the Isles know about that are willing to take on his deal. We'll see.
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) October 26, 2022

Kurz wondered if Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello was trying to trade the 24-year-old forward as a possible part of a package with recent healthy scratches Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauvillier. When that didn't happen, Bellows untimately went to waivers. While Bellows was claimned, there was no corresponding move that came with the transaction, which is why the Islanders are short a man on their roster.

The Islanders didn't exactly fly out of the gate to start their season. Could Lamoriello be looking to still make an impact move to light a fire on his mostly unchanged roster from the 2021-22 season? Time will tell, but for now, Bellows is a Flyer and his Islanders career has come to an end.

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