Islanders sign RFA forward Emil Heineman to two-year contract

A second-round pick (No. 43 overall) of the Florida Panthers in 2020, Heineman never played for his draft club before being traded to the Calgary Flames as part of the Sam Bennett deal at the 2021 deadline.

Naturally, Heineman never played for the Flames, either. He lasted less than a year in the Calgary organization before being traded to Montreal alongside Tyler Pitlick and two draft picks in exchange for Tyler Toffoli.

Heineman finally signed his first NHL contract with the Canadiens in 2022 and appeared in his first four NHL games with the club the following year before establishing himself as a regular in 2024-25. However, his production tailed off midway through the season after he was hit by a car while walking in Utah and sustained an upper-body injury.

On June 27, the Canadiens traded Heineman, along with picks No. 16 and 17 in the 2025 NHL Draft, to the Islanders in exchange for the rights to Dobson, who they subsequently signed to an eight-year extension worth $9.5 million per season. The Islanders selected Kashawn Aitcheson and Victor Eklund with those two first-round picks.

The Islanders have been one of the marquee teams of this summer’s player movement period to date, trading Dobson, signing UFAs Jonathan Drouin and David Rittich, extending RFAs Alexander Romanov and Simon Holmstrom, re-upping pending UFAs Kyle Palmieri and Tony DeAngelo, and — just for good measure — winning the draft lottery to pick Matthew Schaefer at first overall.