The New York Islanders announced that they will extend qualifying offers to eight players: Mathew Barzal, Devon Toews, Ryan Pulock, Joshua Ho-Sang, Grant Hutton, Mitchell Vande Sompel and Kyle Burroughs. Also, the Islanders re-signed Sebastian Aho to a two-year contract, with the second year being one-way. Finally, the Islanders declined the option of Linus Soderstrom, who has gone to Finland to play this season.

It was expected the Islanders would pick up the options of Mat Barzal, Devon Toews and Ryan Pulock. The other signings were more interesting. The biggest surprise was Joshua Ho-Sang receiving a qualifying offer, who was loaned outside of the organization at the end of the 2019-20 season to the San Antonio Rampage.

Ho-Sang didn’t play until December of last season, after not reporting to Bridgeport following a training camp demotion. He skated in 16 games for Bridgeport, before being loaned to San Antonio where he played in four games before the shutdown. Ho-Sang scored four goals and nine assists in 26 total games last year.

Grant Hutton came onto the scene in Bridgeport in the 2019 playoffs and got regular minutes on the power-play. He impressed the Islanders brass enough to have been signed in two straight offseasons.

Mitchell Vande Sompel had a freak injury in the offseason and it caused him to miss the entire 2019-20 season. He had a solid first two seasons of his career coming into this year.

Kyle Burroughs has been the captain in Bridgeport for three seasons and he will be the first Sound Tiger to have played in seven seasons. He has played five full seasons in Bridgeport plus a brief nine-game stint in 2013-14. That is not bad for a seventh round pick in 2013.

Lastly, Sebastian Aho will be back for his fourth season in the United States, as he will look to make the Islanders. He spent most of the past season going back and forth from Long Island to Bridgeport and will fight for a roster spot over the next few months.

Obviously, Barzal, Pulock and Toews got expected news today, but it was interesting to see how many of the remaining six were given another shot.

Christian Gardecki

A Native of Danbury, CT. Christian is one of the longest tenured Drive4Five writers, Christian Gardecki began writing for Drive4five In May of 2017. Christian covers Minor League Hockey and the Bridgeport Islanders for Drive4Five. Outside of Drive4Five, Christian was the captain of his High School Hockey team and currently attends Hofstra University with a major in journalism. Christian was the play by play broadcaster for the Danbury Westerners summer collegiate baseball team during their 2021 NECBL Championship. Christian also was the Public Address Announcer for the Danbury Hat Tricks Minor Pro Hockey team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League and NAHL Junior team from 2019-21.