The New York Islanders were busy doing their big drops to their farm team, as the AHL is starting their training camps this week. In Monday's demotions, there was quite a bit of their young talent, some of which has been in the system almost a bit too long, heading down to the farm, in some cases again. Out of the group, only defenseman Sebastian Aho was on my projected roster, but kids like Kiefer Bellows, Michael Dal Colle or Josh Ho-Sang should have been making an impact by now, one would think.The Islanders did spend a lot of money on depth players, after all that extra cap space opened up, which has now seemingly taken spots away from their youth and they still have a number of pro tryouts still in camp, also likely to possibly take some spots from bubble players. It doesn't look like this team is moving forward much.
It does look like the St. Louis Blues are moving quickly to some of their youth, as veteran forward Jordan Nolan was sent down to the AHL, which likely makes room for a kid like Samuel Blais, who has been having a pretty good preseason, or a Robert Thomas, who I already have on the projected roster, solidifying his spot on there as well. The Blues could have a fair amount of scoring in their back pocket, when they open up the regular season and they could surprise some, given that not all of their names are of the household variety... yet.
The Florida Panthers also sent back junior standout forward Owen Tippett back down to Mississauga of the OHL for another year of seasoning at the junior level. There was some thought that he was pretty close to breaking through camp last year and this year could have been the time that he makes his way through, but that wasn't the case. The Panthers do have some reasonable depth at their disposal right now, like a forward like Frank Vatrano or Anthony Greco, both still in camp and vying for what limited spots are left.
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