Islanders Roster Starting To Take Shape

The Islanders roster is beginning to take shape, after the team announced a series of cuts on Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.
After opening training camp with 68 players on Sept. 14, the Islanders trimmed to 43 skaters on Saturday and reduced again to 28 on Monday. The Islanders need to get down to a 23-man roster before the season begins on Oct. 4.
Among Monday's roster cuts were 2016 first-round pick Kieffer Bellows and 2014 first-round picks Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle, who were assigned to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Isles 2018 first-round pick Noah Dobson was assigned to his junior club, Acadie-Bathurst of the QMJHL.

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"I thought they played extremely well. I think they have a bright future, all they have to do is continue to grow," Islanders President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello said. "These players that are going down, they don't deserve to be here right now. They haven't played that well that they should be taking a job away from the veterans at this point."

Lamoriello was asked specifically about Bellows, who had two goals in four preseason games, and Ho-Sang, who has 22 points (6G, 16A) in 43 games with the Islanders. The GM had praise for both players, but said they could benefit from starting the season in Bridgeport, which will be a new experience for Bellows, who is set to play his first professional season.
"Bellows certainly showed up well, better than I thought he would," Lamoriello said. "It's best for him to go to the minors, play a lot, play in key situations and just grow as a player."
"I thought Ho-Sang] was excellent, I thought he worked hard, gave us everything he had and worked on his game without the puck," Lamoriello added. "He's been excellent in camp, just grow [in Bridgeport] and get better."
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Anders Lee said he was impressed with the prospects' showing at camp and offered some encouraging words for the group assigned to Bridgeport. Lee, who scored 40 goals last season, was in their shoes not too long ago, starting the 2014-15 campaign with the Sound Tigers before being recalled after five games.
"Just because you get put down there for the time being doesn't mean anything at all," Lee said. "Nothing is set in stone, it's a great place to go learn and play and continue to grow you game and just to hone in on everything. A lot of us have spent time in the American League and it's been great for us individually and sometimes you just have to put in the work down there and things will work out. The guys that made it this long and just got sent down proved a lot to us and the organization so we have a bright future."
Lamoriello said he is still evaluating the remaining group and wants to give them an opportunity to practice and play together, as well as see more ice time. The remaining group is largely made up of players on one-way contracts, as well as two players - Stephen Gionta and Dennis Seidenberg - who are on professional tryouts. Luca Sbisa, who came to camp on a PTO, signed a one-year contract with the team on Monday afternoon.

"The people we have here and we have to give the ice time to them," Lamoriello said. "We have a lot of players under contract. We have to find out who they are and if they can play before any major decisions can be made. Myself and our coaching staff are still learning about them."
After having three groups skate daily during the first week of preseason, the Isles are now down to one group skating at Northwell Health Ice Center. That bodes well for building, chemistry, testing out line combinations and working on specifics like special teams and OT strategy.
"Any time you start to get to these numbers practices tend to heat up a little bit," Jordan Eberle said. "You get some battling between each other, some line combinations together. We worked on some specialty things like four-on-four today. You get a chance to do that kind of stuff."
The Islanders have already played six of their eight preseason games and the final two should reveal a lot about opening night. They face the New York Rangers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden and take on the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night in Oshawa, ON.
"We've played six games, so we're way ahead of the group in terms of games," Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "We were going to have to make decisions based on those six games. We made those decisions and we have two games to try to get our group as small, tight and organized as we can."