Christian Arnold
Will Kieffer Bellows and Oliver Wahlstrom make the New York Islanders opening night roster? Who is going to be on the taxi squad? What will the defensive pairings look like?
Those are among the many questions people are asking as the Islanders prepare to finalize their opening night roster by 5 p.m. on Tuesday. There aren’t going to be too many surprises in store when decisions are finally made, but there will obviously be some disappointment if Bellows and/or Wahlstrom are left off the roster.
Especially considering how much praise the two, in particular, have received since on-ice workouts began last week.
But what exactly are Islanders head coach Barry Trotz and his staff looking for from players and what separates someone from being on the cusp of making the team and actually being on the roster. It’s an especially poignant question as we near decision day after a little over a week of on-ice work.
It was a question that was posed to Barry Trotz on Friday after another strong effort from the Islanders’ younger group on the ice. One thing that Trotz noted was the growth in different players’ games.
For instance, he specifically mentioned Wahlstrom and how he has seen an improvement in his game away from the puck.
“We know he can handle it and he can shoot it and all that, but he’s adding those other pieces,” Barry Trotz said. “Everybody you’re looking at differently because you’re looking at what they do really well. Same with Bellows. They create offense. They’re more shooters. That’s probably their primary sweet spot.”
It’s clear that the Islanders coach wants players that won’t be just one-dimensional players, but that statement is even more true this season with all of the wrinkles that could be thrown at them.
Under normal circumstances, a team would have to deal with injuries at different points of the season. Now they’ll face injuries and the inevitable case or cases of COVID-19 that will pop up over the course of the season. The Dallas Stars have already had six players test positive for the virus, pushing back the start of the season, and three other teams have had practices canceled out of an “abundance of caution.”
With that in mind, the players that make the 2020-21 Islanders roster will have to bring multiple skill sets to the table to account for anything that may be thrown at them during the year.
“If someone does come out, we may need a more complete player in that spot and you don’t get that opportunity,” Trotz explained. “As a coach, you got to have the trust that the player is gonna at least have the sense of what he does really well is going to at least have a sense of what he does really well is going to highly overweigh what he doesn’t do well.”
The Islanders will have one final practice on Tuesday before Trotz and the coaching make their final decisions. The younger Islanders have given the coaching staff a lot to think about, which is a good thing for them but makes a tough job even tough for Trotz.
