CHICAGO — At times, Oliver Wahlstrom seemed to have nine lives with the Islanders.
Ultimately, his career with the club that drafted him in the first round six years ago came to an end Saturday, as Wahlstrom was claimed off waivers by the Bruins.
The New England native will get a fresh start closer to home and in the same city where he briefly attended Boston College.
The Islanders waived Wahlstrom and Pierre Engvall on Friday to free up cap space ahead of the likely activation of Mat Barzal from LTIR for Sunday’s game against the Blackhawks.
Engvall has been cleared and will likely be sent to AHL Bridgeport.
His future with the club is also uncertain after the season, with a buyout of the remaining five years of his contract looking more and more like a possibility.
Last summer, it seemed like Wahlstrom’s time with the Islanders was over, with both player and general manager Lou Lamoriello appearing far from fully committed to his future here.
But with the Islanders unable to find a trade they were happy with and unwilling to lose a former first-round pick for nothing, they brought back Wahlstrom on a one-year, $1 million deal and he left the camp.
This didn’t translate into consistent performances in the regular season, however, with Wahlstrom only scoring four points in 27 games.
Although he recently received praise from Patrick Roy, he needed to play with more consistency to secure a place, with lineup changes inevitable given the team had a number of players who would soon be returning from injury.
After tearing his ACL in late 2022, Wahlstrom never looked like the same player.
Even before that, however, he had gotten on the bad side of coach Barry Trotz and was scratched by coach Lane Lambert – a precursor to Lambert scratching him regularly last season as well.
“Whenever Lou makes a decision, we always talk about what options are available to us,” Roy said when asked about Wahlstrom. “And sometimes those are tough decisions. We have a lot of good players and sometimes it’s a difficult decision. Putting guys on waivers isn’t necessarily an easy decision, but we make sure to pick the guys that we think can help us win.
