Six Islanders Still Unavailable, and the List Hasn't Changed

The injury situation in New York hasn't moved. Barzal, Engvall, Palmieri, Pulock, Romanov, and Varlamov remain unavailable heading into training camp — the same six names I've been writing about since late July, and the list is no shorter now than it was then.

The range of what's missing is the problem. Barzal led the team with 42 points in 50 games last season. Varlamov is the starting goaltender. Pulock and Romanov anchor the left side of a defense that was already thin by April. That's not a cluster of role players — that's the spine of the roster, all offline at once.

What makes it harder is the context those absences drop into. The Islanders finished 43–39 last season, but went 3–7 in their final 10 games, and the close-game efficiency that papered over their depth issues all year — they won 27 of 43 one-goal games — isn't something you can count on sustaining through a full 82 with a reshuffled lineup. Bo Horvat was excellent when healthy, but 39 games is not a full season, and he can't be the answer to everything.

The front office has been busy — new AHL general manager, Jefferies locked up, the organizational infrastructure getting a real overhaul under Darche. That work matters eventually. Right now, though, the only question that counts is when these six come back, and nobody has answered it yet.