At least for now, Oliver Wahlstrom is staying an Islander.
The former first-round pick signed a one-year deal ahead of a scheduled arbitration hearing, the Isles announced Thursday.
His salary is $1 million, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
It would still be a surprise, however, if Wahlstrom was on the opening night roster.
With the signing, the Islanders are over the salary cap — which they are allowed to be by 10 percent until opening night — and Lou Lamoriello acknowledged that the team was looking for trade partners at the draft.
“He’s been working very hard all summer and if we can get him an opportunity, because it hasn’t worked out [we will], but we’re not just going to give him away,” Lamoriello said. “He’s still a hockey player. He, unfortunately, went through an injury which takes a long time to recover. I think he’s there. We’ll just wait and see.”
The Islanders and Wahlstrom appeared to hit an endpoint last season when he failed to consistently crack the lineup under coach Patrick Roy, as he was made a healthy scratch in every game from Feb. 26 onwards, excepting the meaningless final game of the regular season.
Coming off a season-ending ACL tear in 2022-23, Wahlstrom signed a similar one-year deal and played just 32 games, scoring twice with four assists.
“There’s no excuses in this business, but at the same time, I didn’t get in much puck touches last year with the injury,” Wahlstrom said on breakup day. “I never went through something like that, so I was expecting to be 100, 200 percent right off the bat. Being young, you don’t realize you gotta take baby steps coming back from injuries and things like that.”
Wahlstrom said that by the end of the season, he felt “great” and later demurred when asked whether he wanted to be an Islander in 2024-25.
Signing Wahlstrom now keeps options open for both sides.
Assuming he is on the training camp roster, the Islanders will get a chance to see whether his performance has jumped in alignment with his health.
If so, perhaps there is a path to a roster spot.
Also possible is that the Isles could use the preseason as a showcase for a potential trade, or that Wahlstrom could end up on waivers or in the AHL.
Barring a substantive improvement in his play, though, a contract does not change the underlying reality that Wahlstrom being on the NHL roster is a long shot.