Justin Johnson will make his NHL debut tonight in Newark against the Devils, replacing the injured Johan Sundstrom. Johnson will become the 3rd player to play for both the Islanders and the ECHL's Alaska Aces, but the first to play for the Isles after playing for the Aces. Johnson will be the 14th rookie (13 skaters + Nilsson) to appear in a game this season for the Isles and the 7th to make his NHL debut since the Olympic break. The Isles used 15 rookies in 2009-10 but three of them were goalies, so the 13 rookie skaters is their most since they also used 13 rookie skaters in 2008-09.
Alaska native Nate Thompson played 82 games for the Isles over two seasons; he then got into 24 ECHL games with the Aces during last year's lockout.
Eric Boguniecki played for Alaska on the back-side of his career. Boguniecki's final 11 NHL games (out of 178) were for the Isles in 2006-07. He hung up his skates after appearing in 51 Aces games in 2009-10.
Johnson actually played High School, College (Alaska-Anchorage) and professional hockey in Alaska.
One of Johnson's college teams-- the '02-'03 Anchorage Seawolves-- went 1-28-7, despite have Chris King (no, not THIS Chris King) as one of their goalies. "Kinger" went 0-9-3 that season.
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
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