The NHL’s Holiday Roster Freeze starts on Saturday, December 20th at 12:01 a.m. and lasts until December 27th at 11:59 p.m. During this time, teams are not allowed to make trades, place players on waivers, or loan players, though they can make emergency recalls and place players on injured reserve (IR) or long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
This temporary freeze likely won’t create issues for the New York Islanders. The team currently has 13 healthy forwards and seven healthy defensemen. Although Bo Horvat did not play in Friday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, he might return for upcoming matches. If the Islanders had put Horvat on IR and called up a replacement, they wouldn’t have been able to reactivate him during the freeze since they can’t loan players back to their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport during this period. The Islanders prefer not to do this, depending instead on Maxim Tsyplakov as their sole extra forward when needed.
Horvat is expected to travel to Buffalo for Saturday night’s game against the Sabres at 5 p.m. ET. Defenseman Marshall Warren was called up from Bridgeport on Thursday morning and will probably remain with the NHL team through the freeze unless a trade is made last minute. With Warren’s $825,000 cap hit now counting against the cap and some LTIR funds being used, the Islanders have limited cap space and won’t be able to acquire additional players during the freeze like they’ve attempted in the past.
Although an emergency recall is an option if needed, the current roster is expected to carry the Islanders through their next three games. The team’s last game before the freeze is on Tuesday night against the New Jersey Devils at UBS Arena.
Fan Take: This roster freeze highlights the strategic challenges NHL teams face managing injuries and cap restrictions during critical times. For fans, it underscores the resilience and depth their teams need to navigate the holiday stretch without the ability to make roster moves.
