Despite the New York Islanders season being over, that does not mean the front office goes to sleep. In this Islanders Prospect Update, we discuss one prospect that announced his retirement, Félix Bibeau, and the Islanders rescinding the rights to goaltender Henrik Tikkanen.

Félix Bibeau was drafted by the New York Islanders in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Before being drafted, Bibeau spent three years (plus three games in 2015-16) with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, scoring 55 goals and 144 points in 182 regular-season games. He also scored 15 goals and 35 points in 40 playoff games, and wore an “A” in 2018-19, when the Huskies won both the President’s Cup as the QMJHL champions and the Memorial Cup.

Bibeau was traded to the Québec Remparts on June 6, 2019, before he was selected by the Islanders to complete a past trade. He spent the first half of the season with the Remparts wearing the “C” and scoring 17 goals and 35 points in 31 games. He was then traded to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens on Dec. 11, 2019, and scored 12 goals and 35 points in 32 games to complete the season. Following the season, he signed a one-year, AHL contract with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, retaining his Islanders rights.

He played 12 games with the Sound Tigers in 2020-21’s condensed schedule, scoring one goal and four points. His Islanders rights expired on June 1, 2021, but the Bridgeport Islanders announced that he had signed a new one-year, AHL contract on Aug. 8, 2021, prior to the start of the season. He split this past season between Bridgeport and the Worcester Railers, the Islanders’ ECHL affiliate. He scored two goals and seven points in 29 AHL games, while tallying three goals and ten points in 15 ECHL games.

On Monday, May 30, the Chicoutimi Saguenéens announced that Bibeau would join the coaching staff as an assistant coach, ending his playing career.

Henrik Tikkanen was the New York Islanders’ seventh-round selection in the 2020 NHL Draft. At the time, he was playing through HIFK’s system after spending his youth with LoKV. The year he was drafted, he played for HIFK U20 in the U20 SM-liiga, finishing with a .895 SV%.

The 6’8″, 201-pound goaltender spent the 2020-21 season between IPK in the Mestis and KalPa in the Liiga. With IPK, he went 6-5-1 with a .877 SV% and 3.25 goals-against average in 12 games, and with KalPa, he went 2-2-3 with a .921 SV% and 1.94 goals-against average.

This past season, he spent time with three different teams-KalPa, MoDo Hockey in the HockeyAllsvenskan, and the SHL’s Växjö Lakers HC. He went 0-2-0 with a 4.95 goals-against average and a .765 SV% in two games. After being acquired by MoDo, he went 13-4-0 with a 2.50 goals-against average and .903 SV% with one shutout in 19 games, and was loaned to Växjö for one game, going 1-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .952 SV%. In one Qualifiers game for MoDo, he was pulled after recording a 5.53 goals-against average and a .857 SV%

On Wednesday, the Islanders lost the signing rights to Henrik Tikkanen. Since he was a European overager when he was drafted classified, their draft rights only lasted for two years instead of the traditional four years for age 18/19 drafted European players.

SEF