The Bridgeport Islanders finished their American Hockey League (AHL) season with a 4-1 victory over the Providence Bruins. A season that ended by taking down one of the league’s top teams was a rare bright spot for the disappointing Islanders. The team had just 28 wins in the 72-game schedule and sat at the bottom of the league the entire way. Despite the frustrating season, there were a few bright spots and a lot of lessons learned.
Too Old, Too Slow
The AHL is the premiere North American league in preparing hockey players for the NHL. It is home to many of hockey’s top prospects, such as Brandt Clarke, Dustin Wolf, and Mavrik Bourque. For Bridgeport, they had the opposite, with the core consisting primarily of players who will never touch the NHL, or used to be in the NHL but are past their prime. The end of the season was better than the rest, but it still ended in disappointment as the offseason now begins.
The team lacked talent, especially on the offensive end. Few players had the ability to take over the game, and career second and third-line forwards were thrown into top-line roles. Forwards such as Carsen Twarynski and Brian Pinho spent the majority of their seasons in the top six but had just around half a point per game each. They are good role players, but asking them to take on bigger roles was a recipe for disaster.
Young Talents Ups and Downs
The season was as inconsistent as it gets for the young core. Despite not having many top prospects, Bridgeport had a handful of New York Islanders prospects who are NHL-likely for the future. This consists of Ruslan Iskhakov, William Dufour, Matthew Maggio, Alex Jefferies, and Henrik Tikkanen.
Iskhakov, who made his second AHL All-Star Game appearance in his second AHL season, was the team’s best player throughout the season. He led the team in goals (18), assists (32), and points (50). He was the generator of the most offense and even earned an NHL call-up for New York’s final game of the NHL season. It will be hard for him to earn a spot in the NHL moving forward, but he has put himself in a position to be a leading candidate for a 2024-25 NHL roster spot. It is easy to imagine once he plays with improved talent his game will improve, so a top-nine role in the NHL could propel him to great offensive success at the sport’s highest level.
Dufour and Maggio had similarly streaky seasons. Maggio struggled to begin the season,…
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