The New York Islanders announced their 23-man roster for the start of the 2022-23 season on Monday evening where they will carry 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders.
2022-23 Islanders roster
- Josh Bailey
- Mathew Barzal
- Anthony Beauvillier
- Kieffer Bellows
- Casey Cizikas
- Ross Johnston
- Anders Lee
- Matt Martin
- Brock Nelson
- Jean-Gabriel Pageau
- Kyle Palmieri
- Zach Parise
- Nikita Soshnikov
- Oliver Wahlstrom
- Sebastian Aho
- Noah Dobson
- Scott Mayfield
- Adam Pelech
- Ryan Pulock
- Alexander Romanov
- Robin Salo
- Ilya Sorokin
- Semyon Varlamov
One notable omission from the roster is veteran winger Cal Clutterbuck, who was placed on injured reserve, retroactive Sept. 26.
General manager Lou Lamoriello indicated that he could come off IR as soon as opening night on Thursday the Florida Panthers at UBS Arena, but the chances of him actually playing are slim.
“Cal had a little soreness after one of the games and we shut him down completely to get it to 100%,” Lamoriello said. “Maybe we did a little too much but he’s been skating on his own and he’ll be joining the team on a day-to-day situation so we expect it to be a short turnaround.”
It opened a spot for Nikita Soshnikov, who was signed by the Islanders last month, to make the opening-night roster. He scored an impressive goal during the team’s preseason outing against the New Jersey Devils to help bolster his spot.
“I had not seen Sosh play for a period of time,” Lamoriello said. “He was with me in Toronto. He had a lot of injuries but when he was healthy, what you see is what I saw there: Exceptional skating, exceptional shot, plays good defense, a penalty killer.”
The battle for the seventh defenseman has also gone to Sebastian Aho, who will act in a reserve role behind the young Robin Salo — a top prospect who played 21 games in the NHL last season due to the Islanders’ COVID and injury issues.
Aho has the trust of Islanders management, which is why he likely beat out Grant Hutton for the No. 7 spot. He played 36 games last season with 12 points and a minus-6 rating.
“Robin appears to have taken the sixth spot… and also it was tough to send Paul [LaDue] and Grant [Hutton] down and put them on waivers,” Lamoriello said. “They put on an excellent camp. They’re right shots right now and we felt Sebastian did nothing wrong and has more experience in the NHL.”
While it was being speculated that Aho could be called upon to play on opening night with Scott Mayfield being absent from the latter portions of the exhibition slate, Lamoriello revealed on Monday that Mayfield will be rejoining the team on Tuesday and is “100%.”
Right-winger Oliver Wahlstrom — who will be looked upon to have a breakout season — is also battling the injury bug as he deals with an upper-body issue that has made his status for the opener questionable. He joined the team for practice on Monday, but it opens up a spot for Kieffer Bellows to make an early impact as he attempts to carve out a consistent niche within the organization.
