Isles get down to 23

Here is the updated roster, as NHL rosters were reduced to 23 at 3pm today:

Forwards
Josh Bailey, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Boulton, Casey Cizikas, Michael Grabner, Matt Martin, Colin McDonald, Matt Moulson, Brock Nelson,
Frans Nielsen,Kyle Okposo,Peter Regin, John Tavares

Defensemen
Matt Carkner, Matt Donovan, Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey, Andrew MacDonald, Griffin Reinhart, Brian Strait, Lubomir Visnovsky

Goalies
Evgeni Nabokov, Kevin Poulin

Injured Reserve
Cal Clutterbuck

BY comparison, here is last year's Opening Night roster:
New York Islanders

Keith Aucoin, Eric Boulton, Brad Boyes, Matt Carkner, Casey Cizikas, Rick DiPietro, Joe Finley, Michael Grabner, Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey, Andrew MacDonald, Matt Martin, Radek Martinek, Colin McDonald, Matt Moulson, Evgeni Nabokov, Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo, Marty Reasoner, Brian Strait, Mark Streit, John Tavares, David Ullstrom.

Injured: Josh Bailey, Jesse Joensuu.

So, 7 players from last year's Opening 23 are gone (Aucoin, Boyes, DiPietro, Finley, Martinek, Reasoner, Ullstrom)
and have been replaced by Bailey (from injured list), Bouchard, Nelson, Poulin, Regin, Reinhart, Visnovsky.

When you compare position by position you have to be optimistic that this is a better opening night roster than the one that eventually qualified for the playoffs last year:

Goalie  Poulin in, DiPietro out
Defense:  Reinhart (at least for now), Visnosvky in,  Finley and Martinek out
Forwards: Bailey, Bouchard and Nelson in, Aucoin, Boyes and Reasoner out



Joesnsuu went from last year's injured list to this year's Edmonton Oilers while the newly acquired Clutterbuck begins the year on IR.

 
Of the 23 Isles on the active roster, Griffin Reinhart is the only one to have never played an NHL game.  Brock Nelson will likely end his short stay as the answer to the "Who is the only Islander besides Dave Salvian to appear only in a playoff game and never in a regular season game" quiz in the next few days.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick