The first roster dominos have fallen as the Islanders get ready to reactivate their injured players.
Pierre Engvall and Oliver Wahlstrom were put on waivers Friday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, in what appears to be a salary-moving exercise after Mat Barzal, Anthony Duclair and Adam Pelech all participated in Thursday’s morning skate without restriction.
Since Barzal and Duclair are on long-term injured reserve, the Islanders need to clear roughly $4.08 million from their books before both can be activated.
Wahlstrom and Engvall going to the minors would equate to $2.15 million of that total — enough to activate either Barzal or Duclair, but not both.
That might indicate one or the other is ready to return on Sunday in Chicago, but the Islanders have yet to announce anything.
Moving Mike Reilly (heart surgery) to LTIR and sending down one more player — likely Marcus Hogberg, if Semyon Varlamov is ready to come back from a lower-body injury, or a defenseman, if Varlamov still needs some time — would clear enough room for both to return.
Pelech, who is not on LTIR, does not require any cap-clearing moves before he can come back from a jaw injury.
It’s been clear since the Islanders called Engvall up following all the injuries that he was essentially auditioning to stay on the roster once the team was healthy — and that other moves would be required once everyone was back.
While both Engvall and Wahlstrom have been in the lineup recently, it’s been hard for either of them to string together more than a few good games at a time.
Engvall, in particular, has repeatedly been a target of coach Patrick Roy’s ire, with multiple instances of the player getting called out in public or benched.
Roy has made his feelings about Engvall so clear that when asked about him after a poor game from the Swede last week, he asked whether or not he needed to answer the question.
As for Wahlstrom, he has been less of a lightning rod for the head coach, but the former first-round pick has been operating on borrowed time since the summer, when it appeared likely the Islanders would trade him.
Wahlstrom made the team out of camp and has had a good attitude in trying to prove he still belongs, but with just four points in 27 games, the production hasn’t been there.