Islanders Excited for Season Ahead of Training Camp

There were plenty of familiar faces at the New York Islanders Golf Outing on Monday morning, the unofficial start of the hockey season, with training camp set to open on Thursday.

For Bo Horvat, camp can’t open soon enough, when summer skates get replaced by practices and scrimmages give way to the real thing.

“I think everybody's excited,” Horvat said from Glen Oaks Golf Club, one of the Long Island courses he’s already played since arriving back on Long Island after Labor Day. “We have a lot of really good pieces here and a lot of good and talent. It’s a very tight-knit group here and everybody knows what to expect from each other, so I'm excited for this year.”

Horvat has moved into his new home on Long Island and feels settled heading into his first training camp with the team. He and Pierre Engvall both joined the Islanders in the back half of last season and should both benefit from getting a full camp with the team, a la JG Pageau’s breakout after an abbreviated camp ahead of the 2020 playoffs.

“It was a good offseason I'm feeling good going into camp, but I think just mostly just feeling good being settled,” said Horvat. “Being able to skate with the guys and being able to actually have a training camp under my belt going into the season is going to be a lot better.”

There’s excitement in the time of year and in the personnel returning. Mathew Barzal was happy to see Ilya Sorokin, Scott Mayfield, Pierre Engvall and Semyon Varlamov sign long-term deals.

“I'm confident in this group,” Barzal said. “I love where we're at with the deals we got this summer, getting [Scott] Mayfield and [Pierre] Engvall done… We added some good size, but the core, it's in and we’ve got to make it happen.”

Mayfield and Engvall signed seven-year deals, while Sorokin inked an eight-year extension, which won’t kick in until the 2024-25 season. Barzal, who begins his eight-year extension this season, suggested Sorokin signing his deal a year early was a vote of confidence from the Vezina Trophy runner-up. Add in Varlamov’s four-year deal and Head Coach Lane Lambert said the Islanders goaltending tandem doesn’t keep him up at night.

“I sleep well,” Lambert said with a laugh.

Despite a bulk of the team returning, Lambert is treating the 2023-24 Islanders as a new group. The two notable absences are Zach Parise, who has yet to make a decision about his playing career, and Josh Bailey, who was dealt in the offseason and signed a PTO with Ottawa last week. The Islanders also signed forwards Julien Gauthier, Karson Kuhlman and Brian Pinho, giving the team some added depth and some extra competition heading into camp.

“Any time you can add competition, as well the internal competition from within I think it's a great thing,” Lambert said. “We’ve added some guys that have NHL games some guys have over 100, so that just adds to the competition.”

The Islanders prospects and young players will wrap up their rookie camp on Tuesday and the veterans will report for physicals on Wednesday. Training camp is on the horizon and there’s excitement brewing on Long Island.

“I'm sick of the summer training and all that,” Horvat said. “I want to get going.”