Islanders hit with awful Noah Dobson injury update

Noah Dobson had just starting heating up offensively for the New York Islanders, but the defenseman won’t be able to contribute on Long Island for the foreseeable future. The 25-year-old is out indefinitely after taking a hit from Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger on Monday night, head coach Patrick Roy confirmed.

“Well, first of all, we have no timetable of [when] he’s going to be back,” Roy said on Tuesday, according to NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner. “That’s the first thing. Secondly, I mean, you don’t replace Noah. He’s one of our better defensemen.”

Dobson went down awkwardly after the hit, which occured in the third period of a 3-1 Islanders win over the Jackets at UBS Arena, and was unable to practice on Tuesday. Despite the grisly nature of the ailment, the Summerside, Prince Edward Island native was able to skate off the ice under his own power.

The former 12th overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft broke out in 2023-24, recording a career-high 10 goals and 70 points over 79 games. Although it’s been a bit of a down year this time around — Dobson has chipped in 24 points in 46 games — he was on a three-game point streak before the unfortunate injury.

It’ll be difficult for New York to replace Dobson, who is leading the team in ice time, averaging just over 24 minutes per night. Alex Romanov was skating on the top pairing alongside Scott Mayfield at practice, with Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock as the second pairing and rookie Isaiah George skating with Dennis Cholowski on the third pair.

“We played Romanov with Mayfield, and they play really well,” Roy said, per Rosner. “Cholowski and George will play together. We have plenty of confidence in these guys, and we’re comfortable with them.”

It looks like Cholowski — who has eight points in 28 games — will get the first crack at quarterbacking the top powerplay unit, along with Bo Horvat, Mat Barzal, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson.

Despite Dobson’s injury, the Isles have been playing some inspired hockey as of late, but are having trouble making up ground in the Eastern Conference.

Islanders playing well, but still last in Metropolitan Division