Islanders prospect watch: bright spots in Bridgeport
In an otherwise forgettable year at Bridgeport, some Islanders prospects are taking great strides in their development.
The Bridgeport Islanders are having a season to forget. Not too long ago, they were dead last in the AHL. At time of writing they’re 28th (out of 31 teams) but have played 10 more games than the current last placed team the Texas Stars.
Unlike the New York Islanders, Bridgeport basically had to play on during not only the top club’s COVID struggles but during their own - there was no scheduling reprieve and they called up a bunch of players from the ECHL who likely would not have been in consideration earlier in the season.
It has been a tough season. However, there a few bright spots if you’re an Islanders fan who has an interest in young players coming through the ranks.
In this post, we’ll take a look at some of these bright spots, currently playing in the AHL yes, but with the potential to be contributors in the NHL soon (admittedly some far closer than others).
For this post I’ve drawn stats from the AHL. I’ve removed some of the veteran AHLers and kept the notable Islanders prospects, plus a few more recent draft picks who seem to be playing well.
I’ve displayed their stats in this DataWrapper chart (replicated in the image below), or you can just go to the source on the AHL’s website.
Where possible, I’ve tried to source information. Unlike the NHL, there is not nearly as much AHL coverage. Even the Bridgeport Islanders twitter doesn’t post every goal they score, nor do they post lines. They don’t post injury information from what I can gather either.
For lines, I have exclusively referred to tweets from Michael Fornabaio. He covers the team, but seemingly not full time, so does not have every line.
The AHL also has a lot of players scratched. Veterans often have to be left out of the line-up and there are constant minor changes. It can be hard to tell who is injured, or just scratched. Point is take any information about lines with a grain of salt.
Now, let’s move onto the bright spots (and one not so bright spot).
Otto Koivula
At time of writing Koivula is 2nd in the team in total points, only behind veteran AHLer Chris Terry.
He is having a great season with Bridgeport. He is the assists leaders (18) and tied for 2nd for goals (7) and its the points per game leader with 0.93 from 27 games played.
Here’s a recent (and spectacular) goal:
While unfortunately it is hard to know who plays on what line in Bridgeport because it is rarely posted, he seems to again be playing well alongside Michael Dal Colle.
Koivula and Dal Colle were frequent line mates in the 2018-19 season, Koivula’s first as a pro, where he scored 21 goals and had a further 25 points in 69 games.
The top Islanders prospect right now is probably Robin Salo in terms of how close they are to becoming a regular NHLer. Koivula may be next.
Here’s what The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler had to say about Koivula a year ago:
Koivula isn’t ever going to be a focal point on an NHL line but he’s got superb touch and hands for his size, playing a finesse game that helps him play playmaker from the perimeter and create when he does get the puck on the inside, so that he’s not just a net-front tips and redirects guy. That small area skill is pretty uncommon for players his size, and it’s enough to lead me to believe he can be more than a fourth-line guy at the next level.
After Robin Salo (more on him below), Koivula seems the next closest Isles prospect to have a legitimate chance at making the NHL.
Arnaud Durandeau
Durandeau was taken in the same draft as Robin Salo and is in his third season at Bridgeport.
His first two seasons saw limited games played and fewer points, but so far this season, he is racking up assists. In 34 games played he has 4 goals and and 16 assists at 0.59 points per game. He is 3rd on the team in points and 2nd in assists and has missed only 1 game so far this season.
Of his 20 points, only 3 (a goal and 2 assists) come on the powerplay. Unfortunately the AHL doesn’t list how much powerplay time players do get, but the important thing is he is generating at 5v5 and isn’t just padding stats on the powerplay.
Durandeau is in the final season of his entry level deal, but with the season he is having, the Islanders surely must be looking to qualify him and provide him an opportunity to continue his progrssion.
Simon Holmström
The 2019 1st round pick is currently 4th on the team in points, though he has 10 less than 1st-placed Chris Terry.
Holmström has 4 goals and 12 assists from 31 games played. Certainly, he is not scoring at the same pace as Otto Koivula, but it is important to remember Holmström is still only 20.
He started in the AHL at 18. Playing against grown men is hard.
Interestingly, in the below clip he scores an empty-netter, suggesting coach Brent Thompson trusted him enough to be out to defend a lead.
One thing I have noticed with Holmström is that he gets bounced around the line-up. For centres he has had Koivula, Andy Andreoff, Kyle MacLean, Jeff Kubiak, Austin Czarnik and even was at centre once himself between Dal Colle and Chris Terry. That’s just in his 31 games played this season.
As we’ve seen with players like Arnaud Durandeau above, and countless others, sometimes it takes some time before things start clicking. Holmström still has 3 seasons left on his entry level contract with the Islanders - there is still plenty of time for him to take off.
Holmström has already eclipsed the 16 points in 46 games from his first season already - and that involves playing with seemingly a different line every other night.
Robin Salo
You don’t need me to tell you about Salo. We’ve already seen him in the NHL and it is pretty clear that he is not only the top defensive Islanders prospect but probably the top prospect outright.
(Fellow Finn Aatu Räty may hold claim of most exciting prospect but Salo is clearly the one closest to earning a regular NHL spot).
When Ryan Pulock eventually returns, Salo will probably be sent back to the AHL because his contract doesn’t require waivers. (I think this is a mistake for a couple of reasons but Lou will be Lou).
In the AHL, he leads defensemen in points per game (0.57). Thanks to only playing 14 games, he is not the top points scorer but still has 2 goals and 6 assists from 14 games.
Mitchell Vande Sompel has 12 points from 24 games for reference.
Salo seems to be a cut above the rest, and for the most part did not look out of place in the NHL, despite the difficult circumstances of some games he played in.
This will probably be the only season he spends in the AHL for quite some time.
Collin Adams and Blade Jenkins
Collins Adams is in his first season with Bridgeport.
Adams has produced a 3 goals and 2 assists in 17 games. It is hard to know exactly where he is playing because lines are not always posted, but on Saturday he was on the 4th-line against Charlotte. (Looks like earlier in the season he was getting some minutes on the higher lines too so perhaps they’re trying him up and down the line-up).
Jenkins, on the other hand, is in his 2nd season. He matched his 2020-21 points total (4) early on and now has 6 goals and 3 assists in 27 games played.
None of his points have come on the powerplay, so again, he is generating this at 5v5.
Jenkins is 21 and still has 1 more season left on his entry level contract, so like Durandeau, there is still time for him to improve.
He has not been in the line-up since late December. He has not been loaned to Worcester, the ECHL team, so it is possible he has an injury.
Samuel Bolduc
At the other end of the spectrum is Samuel Bolduc, who does not have a single point through 24 games played.
After starting his pro-career with a bang last season, scoring 6 goals and adding 8 assists in 24 games, there was some genuine excitement around Bolduc.
But this year he has been injured. He has been in the line-up of late (you can see this in his game log) but perhaps the injury is still nagging him.
Again, the AHL doesn’t report ice time, but perhaps it could be he is playing on the 3rd-pair now. Last season he likely was getting a lot more minutes thanks to players being on the NHL taxi squad.
Now, Seth Helgeson is the captain, while Parker Wotherspoon and Mitchell Vande Sompel have been mainstays with Bridgeport for years. Thomas Hickey has played 17 games in the AHL (and probably would have played more if not for COVID and his call-up). Paul LaDue, who Bolduc had been paired with of late, was signed to an NHL contract but clearly there was no plan to play in the NHL (again until COVID hit). Probably there just aren’t enough minutes to go around.
In the most recent Bridgeport game, Bolduc as listed as the 7th defenseman.
Bolduc was only drafted in 2019, so it would have been a far cry for him to make the NHL roster, regardless of his season thus far. Hopefully he can turn it around for the remainder of the season.
Michael Dal Colle
Not a prospect any longer, but Michael Dal Colle has played well since returning from an injury.
As mentioned above, Dal Colle and Koivula are 2/3rds of Bridgeport’s best offensive line. In the most recent game, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Charlotte Checkers (where Simon Holmström scored the lone shootout goal), it was Dal Colle who scored the tying goal in the 3rd period to send it to overtime. Koivula and Durandeau picked up the assists. Here’s Dal Colle’s frankly ridiculous goal:
Dal Colle has 7 goals and 4 assists in 13 games played (as pointed out Bridgeport’s social media team - not a big deal). He is on a 7 game point streak at time of writing.
His last season in the AHL, 2018-19, saw him score at a point per game and so far this season he isn’t far off - only 0.85 per game.
Despite the forgettable season that Bridgeport has had, with Dal Colle back in the line-up you may see them claw their way up the standings slightly though playoffs are probably out of the question. He is a good player at the AHL level - perhaps one day he may be able to bring it to the NHL too.
Jakub Škarek
Departing from the skaters to look at goalies for a moment, we have Jakub Škarek, the 2018 3rd-round pick.
He is in his 3rd-season at Bridgeport. Over his first two, he won a combined 6 games - he already has 9 this season, even in what has been a tough year for Bridgeport. In terms of games, it was a combined 28 games. This season he has appeared in 21 of 35 games and has clearly become the main starter in Bridgeport, with Corey Schneider being the back-up.
Škarek’s save percentage is 0.906 (slightly below Schneider’s 0.912) and his goals against average is 2.94. The past two seasons saw his save percentage at 0.887 and 0.888 to illustrate how much he has improved this season.
Škarek still seems a long way from the NHL (if he ever gets a shot), but like a lot of players in this article is taking strides in his 3rd season. Perhaps as he enters his 4th season, he continues his growth and becomes a potential NHL back-up to Ilya Sorokin after Semyon Varlamov’s contract ends at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.
Growth
While it may be a hockey cliche, it can take time for a lot of young players to develop. Johnny Boychuk, for example, played nearly 400 AHL games before finally making his way into the NHL. Not every player develops at the same rate.
Michael Dal Colle had two very underwhelming seasons in the AHL before lighting it up for a point per game in 2018-19.
Whether it is age, maturity, practice or something else often a switch is seemingly flicked and they will go from middling to attention-grabbing very quickly.
The Islanders have developed some great players out of their system over the years, but of late the cupboard has been bare.
Despite the Islanders’ veteran-heavy roster and the ‘win-now mode’ moves that Lou Lamoriello has been making the past few years, now is really the time when you want young players to be challenging for spots.
Teams have it wrong when they get ‘close’. Sure, trade away some late round draft picks, but trading 1st-rounders is not always the optimal strategy. As veterans age and their contracts become bloated, at least respective to what they produce, you want young faces demanding a spot in the line-up.
While not a prospect, Austin Czarnik is currently making a strong case to be in the Islanders’ top-12 forwards at the moment, even over Kyle Palmieri when he returns from injury.
Otto Koivula is probably the next in line for a forward spot (at least in terms of prospects). Given his current level of play in the AHL, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him force his way onto the 3rd or 4th lines of the Islanders in the current or next season.
Perhaps at the upcoming trade deadline, Lou holds onto his assets and looks within the organisation for a spark, rather than giving away a 1st-rounder for yet another good but not spectacular veteran.
Whatever the result, it is exciting to see some young players making the most of a tough season in Bridgeport.