New York Islanders place Adam Pelech on LTIR

New York Islanders general manager and president Lou Lamorriello announced Saturday that the Islanders have placed defenseman Adam Pelech on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR) for an upper-body injury.

Pelech played only 55 seconds of Friday night’s 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. Pelech was checked behind the Islanders’ net by Ottawa’s Drake Batherson and then clutched his left hand unconformably before leaving the ice.

The 27-year-old has three assists, 28 blocked shots and 15 hits in 16 games this season while averaging 19:38 of ice time.

Pelech was a third-round pick of the Islanders in the 2012 NHL Draft and has spent the entirety of his nine-season NHL career on Long Island. He’s currently in the third year of an eight-year contract with a $5.75 million cap hit, one he signed in the 2021 offseason as a restricted free agent after an arbitration filing.

In 458 career games, the Toronto, Ontario product has registered 25 goals and 127 points while adding 764 blocked shots and 676 hits.

Pelech’s LTIR designation means the blueliner will miss at least 10 games and 24 calendar days, meaning the earliest he could return would be Dec. 19 against the Edmonton Oilers.

Meanwhile, the Islanders also placed forward Matt Martin on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury retroactive to Nov. 15. Martin’s injury had kept him out of the Islanders’ lineup for the past four games. Martin has tallied two points in 14 games.

The Islanders will be desperately looking at recall options from their AHL affiliate, Bridgeport Islanders.

The likely options in Bridgeport are Robin Salo, Grant Hutton, Dennis Cholowski, and Paul LaDue. Salo has 32 games of NHL experience under his belt, with three goals and six assists. Hutton played 16 games for the Islanders in 2021-22, with one goal. Cholowski, a former first-round pick by the Detroit Red Wings, has 117 NHL games under his belt, with 10 goals and 20 assists.