The ongoing drama between Josh Ho-Sang and the New York Islanders took another turn as the young forward has not reported to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL and has asked to be traded. Ho-Sang came into camp with his best opportunity to make the team out of training camp, but was placed on waivers alongside Thomas Hickey and Tanner Fritz as all three went unclaimed.
General manager Lou Lamoriello has seemed to adhere to what Ho-Sang wants and will look for a team to trade the former first-round pick in the 2014 draft. He becomes the second former first-round pick to ask to be traded, alongside Nino Niederreiter and fourth former first-rounder since 2010 to be on the move. Ryan Strome and Griffin Reinhart were also traded after not living up to their full potential.
In a league where he saw top-line minutes the AHL, Ho-Sang never scored more than 10 goals, which was a complete drop-off from his earlier days in the OHL. His tenure with the Islanders did not get off to a good start as he overslept his first day of training camp in 2015. He was quickly sent back to the Niagara Ice Dogs and missed the rest of training camp that year.
In his brief Islanders career, Ho-Sang made his debut in the 2016-17 season where he played in 21 games and scored his first career goal against the Edmonton Oilers. He finished the season with four goals and eventually went on to play in only 53 career NHL games and was not in consideration to to make the postseason roster last spring.
Head coach of the Sound Tigers Brent Thompson hoped Ho-Sang would take a few days off to collect himself after his demotion, but that was obviously not the case. Lamoriello is hoping this will not be a distraction to his AHL team as they have been in preparation for their season opener on Saturday. He did express if Ho-Sang does report at some point, he will remain there.
Possible Trade Solutions
It’s hard to imagine what the Islanders can expect to get from him in a trade. Had this became a major issue during the regular season, it’s easy to think they could have dealt him to another team dealing with the same issues. They also could have traded him to a contending team looking to add another piece if Ho-Sang was able to prove himself a bit this season.
As for now, the Islanders should look to just receive any type of draft pick they can for him. He was already placed on waivers with each team having the chance to claim him, but he was not picked up. It would likely be a sixth- or seventh-round draft pick they would receive. The Islanders have always stressed that they want players who want to be here. This is clearly not the case with Ho-Sang and if they feel he can’t make an impact with the NHL team, they need to just let him move on.
Back in August, Ho-Sang signed a one-year deal with the Islanders. At the time, there seemed be an opportunity for him to make the team with Andrew Ladd still recovering from a torn ACL, but Michael Dal Colle beat him out for the final spot with a strong training camp.
