Islanders place defenseman Sebastian Aho on injured reserve

The New York Islanders announced on Monday that defenseman Sebastian Aho has been placed on injured reserve, retroactive to last Friday. As of now, no corresponding recall has been made. Aho was injured early in the team’s Friday night game, along with fellow defender Adam Pelech. Both players have since been placed on IR, with Pelech being put on long-term injured reserve.

Aho has appeared in 19 games this season, netting four assists, four penalty minutes and a -3 plus/minus. He’s also managed 18 shots and nine hits. This year becomes the fifth season that Aho has played in the NHL and follows up a strong 2022-23 season that saw the defenseman score 23 points and record a +9 in 71 games. Aho is in the last year of a two-year, $1.6M contract extension signed last summer.

The 27-year-old was originally drafted by the Islanders in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL Draft, after scoring 30 points in 50 SHL games in the 2016-17 season. He immediately came over to the NHL, playing in 22 NHL games in the following 2017-18 season. He’s managed 151 career games throughout his five-year career, scoring nine goals and 45 points.

This news knocks the Islanders down to just six healthy NHL defensemen, including recent waiver claim Mike Reilly. Reilly has yet to make his debut with the Islanders but did appear in two games with the Florida Panthers earlier in the year, going without a point while also recording two penalty minutes and a -2. The Islanders become the sixth NHL team that Reilly has been apart of. The 30-year-old defender originally signed a one-year, $1M contract with Florida on July 1, after being bought-out by the Boston Bruins.