Roy & Lamoriello Giving Islanders Wahlstrom 'A Good Look'

Wahlstrom is going to get a true shot.

EAST MEADOW, NY -- The New York Islanders are giving forward Oliver Wahlstrom a good look following the 2024 NHL All-Star break.

On Friday, the Islanders elected to waive forward and playing-time rival Julien Gauthier in an effort to get their salary cap in order with a few players returning from injury. 

"We had to make a decision on one player because of the cap situation," Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "And we're going to give Wahlstrom a good look. Fasching is certainly a versatile player, so we made that decision."

The 23-year-old Wahlstrom has struggled to not just get into the lineup this season but earn minutes, playing in 23 of the team's 49 games with just two goals and four assists, while averaging 11:04 minutes per game.

In Patrick Roy's first week on the job, Wahlstrom watched the first three games from the press box but was penciled in for their game against the Florida Panthers to close out the week.

Roy said he needed to see that Wahlstrom could understand the systematic changes that were made.

"It's hard for a guy that's been out of the lineup," Roy said. "And when he comes back in, you want to make sure that 'okay, is there something you don't understand?' Is there something I can help you to understand?'. If it's not me, it could be MacLean, Houda, or the video guys. So, I really want to make sure that when the player comes in the lineup, he feels good. All he has to worry about is playing the game."

In his first game under Roy, a 4-3 overtime loss, Wahlstrom didn't get any shots on goal but did earn a secondary assist in 10:14 minutes, along with two hits and a giveaway. 

"I thought he did a very good job," Roy said. "I thought he played a pretty good game. I mean, it's never easy when you haven't played in a long period of time, but I thought he responded pretty well." 

Now, with Gauthier out of the picture for the time being, Lamoriello wants Wahlstrom to just play hockey. 

"He has to just not worry about scoring or anything. Just go and play," Lamoriello said. "I think he's put a lot of pressure on himself, so he just has to go play, just go have fun. And when I say that, you have to enjoy what you do. We don't worry about the scoring. We just worry about the goal differential. 

"I believe every night there's a different person who can come forward. And let's not worry about points. Just go play."

After Wahlstrom skated alongside Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom at Sunday's skate, as he did against Florida, The Hockey News asked Roy what more he needed to see from Wahlstrom. 

"I have time for him. I'm curious to see what his ceiling is, where he is," Roy said. "We are gonna do a lot of one-on-ones because...he is a very good hockey player, but he needs to be more involved physically. What I mean by physically -- I don't need him to kill guys over the boards and stuff like this. I want him to be more involved physically. When he receives a body check, I want him to move his feet, get out of that one-on-one situation, and beat the guy to the net. I want him to drive the net more on the rush. Last game, there was a sequence where he could have driven the middle of the net, and he stayed on the outside, so I want to make some small changes like this.

"But I do believe in him because, talking to Lou and other people before his injury, apparently he was playing very well for this team. So I'd love to give him a chance to get back to where he was. And I think he deserved that."

What Roy said was true.

Prior to Wahlstrom's season-ending ACL injury last December, he was on pace to set career highs offensively and had shown growth in understanding how to play a 200-foot game. 

But this year, it was hard for him to gain traction and get into a rhythm due to having Gauthier and Fasching on the roster and Wahlstrom not playing well enough when in the lineup.

With Lamoriello keeping him over a player like Gauthier and allowing Roy to work with No. 26 as much as possible, Wahlstrom will likely get the biggest leash of his career and be supported along the way.

Wahlstrom is a pending restricted free agent, and despite still being young, he's running out of time to establish himself as a legitimate top-six player for New York. 

We'll see if Roy's coaching style, which is different than Barry Trotz and Lane Lambert, can get Wahlstrom to live up to his potential. 

You can watch Rosner talk Islanders hockey on Hockey Night in New York with co-host Sean Cuthbert live Sunday nights at 8 PM ET during the season on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter & Facebook.