There are several questions surrounding the National Hockey League right now, two of the notable ones being “When will the season start?” and “Will there be an American Hockey League season?” The answer, as of right now, is that the season is going to start on January 1, 2021, and for the AHL season, nobody really knows. One of the things that teams are doing currently to avoid there not being any North American hockey for their prospects and youth to play in is by loaning them to leagues throughout Europe, where leagues are practicing at the minimum, but some are in the midst of their regular seasons. What are the benefits to this and which Islanders’ prospects are playing in Europe?

The Benefit of Prospects Playing in Europe

The National Hockey League may be regarded as the best hockey league in the world, but after that, people have to look to Europe for the rest of the top group. The obvious choice for second is the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), or Russia’s premier league. Following that would be the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), and the SM-liiga, Sweden and Finland’s top leagues. Rounding out the group are the Czech Extraliga and Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) in the Czech Republic and Germany, respectively.

For young players that are expected to play in the NHL when the season commences, the ability to play and practice in some of the world’s top leagues with the best players outside the NHL could be a major step in their development. For example, the Los Angeles Kings have loaned out many of their top prospects to European clubs. Forwards Carl Grundstrom (IF Björklöven) and Samuel Fagemo (Södertälje SK) were both loaned to clubs in the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second league in their home country of Sweden. Swedish defenseman Jacob Moveare (SaiPa) was loaned out to the Liiga. Alex Turcotte, Tyler Madden, Akil Thomas, Aidan Dudas, and Jacob Ingham were all loaned to Eisbären Berlin in the DEL, a team that shares ownership with the Kings. Los Angeles is taking advantage of getting their younger players on the ice, practicing, before training camp opens up, likely in December. Some of them may even go back on loan to the teams they are at right now if there isn’t an AHL season and they don’t make the Kings opening night roster.

Islanders Prospects in Europe

The New York Islanders loaned out a handful of young players and prospects to European leagues, in addition to the group of players that were already playing overseas. The one prospect who has played but is not in Europe is Islanders’ 2020 fifth-round pick William Dufour, who, with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), are playing regular-season games with many precautions. Dufour has three assists in two games to start his season. Here are the Islanders’ prospects playing in Europe, and how they have performed so far this season.

All statistics are as of October 27, 2020

Forwards:

Oliver Wahlstrom (AIK, HockeyAllsvenskan): 6 Games, 2-2-4 2 PIM, -4

Simon Holmstrom (HC Vita Hästen, HockeyAllsvenskan): 6 Games, 1-1-2, 2 PIM, +1

Otto Koivula (HIFK, Liiga): 4 Games, 1-1-2, -3

Ruslan Iskhakov (TPS, Liiga): 9 Games, 2-3-5, 4 PIM, Even

Anatoly Golyshev (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, KHL): 17 Games, 7-5-12, 24 PIM, +7

Alexander Ljungkrantz (Brynäs IF J20, J20 Nationell): 14 Games, 9-5-14, 8 PIM, +8, plus two games in the SHL with Brynäs IF

Defensemen:

Robin Salo (Örebro HK, SHL): 11 Games, 1-3-4, 2 PIM, -1

Matias Rajaniemi (Pelicans, Liiga): 7 Games, 6 PIM

Goaltenders:

Henrik Tikkanen (IPK, Mestis): 6 Games, 4-1-1, 2.31 GAA, .890 SV%

SEF