Greg Logan updated his Newsday blog this afternoon.
Season-opening roster
Here is the 22-man roster the Islanders had on the ice for practice today in Syosset:
Forwards (by lines)
Ruslan Fedotenko-Mike Comrie-Bill Guerin
Andy Hilbert-Josef Vasicek-Miroslav Satan
Jonathan Sim-Mike Sillinger-Trent Hunter
Sean Bergenheim-Richard Park-Darryl Bootland.
Extras – Chris Simon (suspended first five games),
Shawn Bates is on injured reserve
Defense (by pairings)
Brendan Witt-Radek Martinek
Andy Sutton-Marc-Andre Bergeron
Chris Campoli-Bruno Gervais
Extras – Freddy Meyer and Aaron Johnson.
Goaltenders – Rick DiPietro, Wade Dubielewicz.
Free agent defenseman Bryan Berard remains unsigned, but that might change later today. It's possible GM Garth Snow might be trying to trade Meyer to make room for the possible signing of Berard. It's also still possible Gervais could be sent down to Bridgeport.
Among the forwards, Jeff Tambellini was sent back to Bridgeport after failing to make the second scoring line.
Logan says he will have more updates later today.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Only new information Logan told us here was Tambellini was sent to Bridgeport for Andy Hilbert or Sean Bergenheim.
A little surprising because Tambellini did not play last year in Europe and had a camp on par with Bergenheim but both are different players with different skill sets. Neither one were dominating players according to all reports and games I saw.
A lot of folks are not going to be happy with a Tambellini demotion but he did not have to clear waivers and for now it was most painless option. Bottom line like it or not Andy Hilbert signed a two year contract this summer, it was going to take an awful lot for management to demote him based on a two week camp and he did have a career season last year on what was the club's best line at times. Should be interesting to see if he can produce as a second liner if that's where the club intends to use him.
Bootland will be the temporary replacement for Simon during his suspension as things stand and may be a healthy scratch as the Islanders may be dressing seven defenders.
Meyer and Johnson are very interesting situtations and one of them will be related to if a deal can be worked out with Berard.