The move comes after the forward sustained a lower-body injury following a collision with New Jersey Devils forward Pavel Zacha in the first period of a 5-3 win on Thursday.
"You just go forward," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Every team so far has probably had injuries or COVID related incidents or whatever … you just move on, it's part of life. If you didn't get hurt in this business, it's probably because you're not playing hard night in and night out. There's going to be instances you're going to get tangled up with people like Anders did and you get hurt or you're going to get friendly fire from your own defenseman as you're heading to the net. This game, you just have to roll with the punches, it's no different than life. One guy goes down, you keep moving on, you don't just fold your tents and go home."
Lee has 19 points and leads the Islanders with 12 goals in 27 games this season. He had not missed a game in the past four seasons and had missed three games in the past six seasons.
"You hate to see a guy go down, especially Anders, our leader," New York forward Brock Nelson said after the win Thursday. "Goes out plays hard, battles every night. Guys feed off him, look up to him. … Guys are going to try and rally for him out there."
The Islanders (18-6-4), who are in first place in the MassMutual East Division, defeated the Devils 3-2 in their first game without Lee on Saturday and will look to sweep the three-game set on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG, MSG+, NHL.TV).
