Isles Assign Niederreiter & Gillies To AHL

Isles Make Roster Moves; Assign Gillies & Niederreiter To AHL

Trevor Gillies cleared waivers this afternoon and as the Islanders mentioned yesterday, he will be assigned to the Sound Tigers. He will make his AHL season debut tomorrow against the Connecticut Whale (the Rangers farm team) where I am sure we will see some fisticuffs involving Gillies. Despite his shortcomings as an actual player, Gillies is a very good fighter and is one of the big leaders in the locker room. I am more than sure that we will see Gillies back up at the NHL level by the end of November. Along with the Gillies demotion, the Islanders made another big roster move. Nino Niederreiter has yet to play a game this season because of a groin injury, but it appears he will be making his season debut tomorrow...just not with the Islanders. The Isles announced today that he has officially been cleared and removed from the injured reserve and placed on the Islanders 23-man roster. Following that announcement, they revealed that Nino will join Trevor Gillies and head to Bridgeport. Niederreiter's loan is on a conditioning basis which means he can only remain on that loan to the Sound Tigers for at-most two weeks. Following those two weeks he will not be allowed to stay in the American Hockey League under any circumstance because he is under 20 years old which means he would normally be in-eligable to play there until next season. Getting Niederreiter some time in the AHL at nineteen years old is a very good decision as the extra seasoning he will get from a few games at a lower level will prepare him fully for the NHL once his two week loan is finished.