As the New York Islanders return home after a lengthy road trip, one player will return to the lineup after a lengthy hiatus.
Defenseman Adam Pelech has been activated off long-term injured reserve and will likely play in his first game in over six weeks tonight versus the Vancouver Canucks. In order to make the roster space necessary for Pelech, the Islanders placed goalie Semyon Varlamov on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 2.
Pelech, 29, has missed the last 20 games with an upper-body injury he endured against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 24
If he does play for the Islanders tonight, Pelech will fill a major void that’s existed within the team’s lineup ever since he got hurt.
“He’s a key piece to the backend,” Noah Dobson said. “He plays in a lot of situations for us back there. It’s definitely a huge boost. He’s a guy we’ve missed back there.”
As for which defenseman will come out of the lineup if Pelech does play, the unfortunate one appears to be Samuel Bolduc.
The young defenseman has played in all but one game since Pelech went down, averaging 14:43 of ice time per game. Although none were particularly flashy, Bolduc has displayed moments of undeniable improvement in the recent matchups.
Nevertheless, with the Islanders now holding a surplus of healthy defensemen, it looks as if he’ll once again be a healthy scratch.
Pelech’s injury was the first in a long line the Islanders endured on their backend. Only minutes after Pelech was hurt, Sebastian Aho went down with an upper-body injury of his own and spent eight games on the shelf.
Since then, Scott Mayfield, Ryan Pulock and the recently acquired Robert Bortuzzo have all missed time as well. Pulock and Bortuzzo still remain out.
The Islanders will host the Canucks at UBS Arena tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST as part of a brief two-game homestand.
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