An Early Look at the 2018-19 Goalie Setups

With Free Agency underway this week, there are plenty of changes between players and teams. The Railers’ NHL Affiliate, the New York Islanders, re-signed their Christopher Gibson to a two-year deal. Gibson’s signing has an impact on what the goaltending situation is for the Railers next season.

With Jaroslav Halák signing with the Boston Bruins and Kristers Gudļevskis signing with the Dinamo Riga of the KHL, Eamon McAdam will become the starting goaltender up in Bridgeport and Gibson will become Thomas Griess’ backup in New York. Islanders prospect Linus Soderstrom is expected to enter the system and will most likely be McAdam’s backup in Bridgeport.

Back in Worcester, Mitch Gillam will likely return and has most likely signed a contract next season with the Railers, as he was not listed on the Railers’ qualifying offers list.

The Current Goaltending Situation for the Islanders Organization is projected to looks like this:

New York Islanders
Thomas Greiss
Christopher Gibson

Bridgeport Sound Tigers
Eamon McAdam
Linus Soderstrom

Worcester Railers
Mitch Gillam*
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Hudson, Almeida, McKenzie Re-Sign for 2018-19 Season

The Railers have announced that Woody Hudson, Barry Almeida, and Kyle McKenzie have all signed contracts for the 2018-19 season. There is no surprise that any of these players have re-signed for next season, given that Hudson and McKenzie stayed in the Worcester area and are working in the area over the summer. Almeida, who led the Railers in points and goals scored was a necessary signing for the Railers to bring him back for season two.

Railers Acquire Nick Sorkin for Nick Saracino

As announced earlier last week, Railers acquired the player rights to Nick Sorkin in a trade for Nick Saracino with the Wheeling Nailers. With a former Wheeling Nailers player recently becoming Jamie Russell’s right-hand man there’s no big surprise that we’ll see a mix of his former teammates and former Providence College.

Sorkin led the Nailers in assists and total points scored last season. He is expected to play on the Railers top line alongside Barry Almeida.

Sorkin was not issued a qualifying offer by the Railers, so he likely has signed for next season with his signing being announced later this summer. Saracino signed with Wheeling shortly after the trade was announced.

Railers Issue Qualifying Offers to Two Players

The ECHL released the names of players who had been issued qualifying offers on Monday. The Railers list had only two names: Patrick McNally and Ben Masella.

For players that were not issued Qualifying Offers, they could either have been signed to a contract already (pending an announcement of the signing) or have become unrestricted free agents. Players who have signed contracts already are exempt from qualifying offers since they are already onboard for next season.

There is a very good chance that most of the players from the season-ending roster have signed contracts for next season, with their signings to be announced throughout the summer.

The full list of qualifying offers from every team in the league can be found here.

Islanders’ Draft Recap, Prospect Mini-Camp

The Railers’ NHL affiliate came out of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft with a bang, picking up a second first-round pick through a trade and drafting a total of eight players.

Oliver Wahlstrom (RW) – 1st Round, 11th Overall
Noah Dobson (D) – 1st Round, 12th Overall
Bode Wilde (D) – 2nd Round, 41st Overall
Ruslan Iskhakov (C) – 2nd Round, 43rd Overall
Jakub Skarek (G) – 3rd Round, 72nd Overall
Jacob Pivonka (C) – 4th Round, 103rd Overall
Blade Jenkins (LW) – 5th Round, 134th Overall
Christian Krygier (D) – 7th Round, 196th Overall

These players in addition to Yanick Turcotte, Ryan MacKinnon, Eamon McAdam and many other Islanders prospects participated in the Islanders’ annual prospect mini-camp last week. The camp consists is a mid-summer development camp, a week of on and off-ice workouts with the Islanders and Bridgeport Sound Tigers coaching staffs. Railers’ Jamie Russell was in attendance, so there’s a good chance we’ll end up seeing a few of these names in the near future.