{"id":549092,"date":"2026-04-09T23:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549092\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:48:50","slug":"deangelo-nurmi-salo-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549092\/","title":{"rendered":"DeAngelo, Nurmi, Salo \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Islanders veteran defenseman Tony DeAngelo<\/a> will return to the lineup for tonight\u2019s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, new head coach Peter DeBoer told the media today<\/a>. DeAngelo has been out since March 24 with a lower-body injury, and has missed the team\u2019s last six games. A lot has changed for New York since DeAngelo last played. At that time, the Islanders were tied with the Ottawa Senators, who occupied the second wild-card playoff spot, in points, and were just one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for third and second place in the Metropolitan Division, respectively. Just over two weeks later, the Islanders are not only three points adrift of a playoff spot, but they also have a new face behind the bench in DeBoer.<\/p>\n

Getting DeAngelo back from injury will give DeBoer an additional option to work with as he constructs the team\u2019s defense for his first game in charge. Per The Hockey News\u2019 Stefen Rosner<\/a>, DeAngelo will slot in on DeBoer\u2019s second pairing, alongside veteran shutdown defenseman Adam Pelech<\/a>. The 30-year-old has had an up-and-down career in the NHL, oscillating between entrenching himself in lineups thanks to his offensive production, and losing his footing due to defensive deficiencies coaches couldn\u2019t overlook. After spending the early portion of last season in the KHL, DeAngelo returned to the NHL to sign with the Islanders, and seems to have found a steady role on Long Island. While the emergence of star rookie Matthew Schaefer<\/a> has cut into his time on the team\u2019s power play (he\u2019s down from 2:58 per game in 2024-25 to 1:34 this season) DeAngelo has still managed to produce 33 points in 72 games. The final four games on New York\u2019s schedule not only have high stakes for the team, but also high personal stakes for DeAngelo. As a pending UFA, his performance down the stretch could leave a lasting impression on DeBoer and GM Mathieu Darche, who will need to decide whether he\u2019ll be part of their plans for next year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Other notes from around the NHL:<\/p>\n

Islanders prospect Jesse Nurmi<\/a> has been reassigned to the AHL\u2019s Bridgeport Islanders from his OHL team, the London Knights, according to the league\u2019s transactions wire<\/a>. Nurmi, 21, tried his hand at pro hockey early this season but only managed two points across 12 games for the Islanders\u2019 ECHL affiliate, the Worcester Railers. He was loaned<\/a> back to the OHL in December. In London, the 2023 fourth-round pick managed 14 goals and 31 points in 30 games, along with one point in the Knights\u2019 first round series loss to the Soo Greyhounds. With today\u2019s reassignment, he\u2019ll get the chance to once again try his hand at pro hockey this season.
\nFormer Islanders defenseman Robin Salo<\/a> will leave the SHL\u2019s Malm\u00f6 Redhawks after two seasons with the club, according to a team announcement<\/a>. The 27-year-old was a second-round pick of the Islanders at the 2017 draft and ended up skating in 32 NHL games for the club, coming during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns. Salo was last part of the organization in 2023-24, when he scored 24 points in 68 games for AHL Bridgeport. Salo was once one of the Islanders\u2019 top prospects, ranking No. 3 in the team\u2019s system in 2021, according to Scott Wheeler of The Athletic<\/a>. That high ranking was shared by the team at Elite Prospects, who ranked Salo<\/a> the Islanders\u2019 No. 2 prospect that same year. While Salo never quite became the steady NHL defenseman some scouts projected him to be, he\u2019s nonetheless developed into a valuable blueliner in the SHL. He led all Redhawks defensemen in scoring with 40 points in 52 games this season and was a true No. 1 defenseman for Malm\u00f6, averaging 24:45 time on ice per game. He ranked No. 5 in scoring by a defenseman in the SHL this season and led all blueliners in time on ice per game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Islanders veteran defenseman Tony DeAngelo will return to the lineup for tonight\u2019s game against the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,26752,3328,159,5190,5189,4,4157,5891],"class_list":{"0":"post-549092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-jesse-nurmi","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-robin-salo","17":"tag-tony-deangelo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116377427035175909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}