Islanders Off-Season 2015: Training Camp Opens & Zidlicky Signs

Camp Opened for the Islanders today.

Arthur Staple mentioned that Steve Bernier was skating with John Tavares & Anders Lee in Group A. Curious?

Well, it turns out that Joshua Ho-Sang was late for the first day of 2015-16 Isles training camp.

As a result, he was sent back to Niagara of the OHL and for him, camp is over before it really began.  Staple mentioned the word around camp was that “Ho-Sang's behavior had been exemplary during week of rookie camp that preceded today. Same with camp in July.  Ho-Sang was also going to skate this weekend on the right side with Tavares and Lee. Clearly Isles value him.”

Ho-Sang had his detractors up until his draft and the Islanders took the talented forward in spite of his “troublesome reputation.”  No one can doubt Ho-Sangs skill and potential, but his choice to be late on the first day of camp is sure to put him is disfavor of the moment.  It just wasn’t a smart thing for him to do and I am sure Josh Ho-Sang knows he made a mistake.  He is never short of motivation but he will need to make better decisions if he wants to be brought in with a shot to make an impression as a potential line mate of John Tavares and Anders Lee.


UPDATE:  Per Arthur Staple, “Islanders have signed D Marek Zidlicky to a one-year, $1.5 million deal. Will be in camp tomorrow.”  It is an incentive and bonus ladened contract.  There is another veteran defensemen to add depth to the blue line & PP unit.  So the D could look like Boychuk-Leddy, Hamonic-de Haan & Hickey-Pulock with Marek Zidlicky for depth with Brian Strait & Scott Mayfield pushing for a spot.  Looking good.

Camp News:

Lines and pairings mean very little, but here was the lineup for day 1 of camp.

Other lines in Group A: Dal Colle-Cizikas-Collberg, Martin-Kearns-Clutterbuck, Whitney-Barzal-Bailey.

Calvin de Haan, Johnny Boychuk, Travis Hamonic & Matt Carkner were D in Group A.

Top lines in Group B: Nelson-Quine-Okposo, Florek-Nielsen-Strome, Petrov-Grabovski-Kulemin.

Leddy-Pulock, Hickey-Mayfield D in Group B.

Goaltenders at camp this year are Christopher Gibson, Thomas Greiss, Jaroslav Halak, Parker Milner, Kevin Poulin & Stephon Williams.

Camp Notes:

Per Arthur Staple:

“Snow likened newly acquired prospect Carter Verhaeghe to Casey Cizikas, thinks Christopher Gibson could be a future NHL goalie.”

“Gibson's acquisition means Kevin Poulin has an even tougher climb at camp. Halak/Greiss for Isles, Gibson/Williams/Poulin for BPT jobs.”

Per Cory Wright, “Petrov skating with Grabovski and Kulemin. Grabo and Kule helping Petrov adjust to North American game and communicate with coaches.”

Isles Notes:

Former Islander, Trevor Gillies was signed by ECHL SC Stingrays and is now a member of the Washington Capitals system.