Ty Wishart, The Other Piece Of The Dwayne Roloson Trade

Who is Ty Wishart? Our Islanders blog, Lighthouse Hockey, tried to find out:

As mentioned, his 18 points puts him behind only Rhett Rakhshani on [the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, NYI’s AHL affiliate], though he compiled those points on a high-scoring Norfolk squad. Dylan Reese is with the Islanders on their current road trip (and Lawson now will join him), but it wouldn’t be a stretch to see Wishart soon finding himself in that first call-up role.

For the long term, though -- and presumably the Isles wouldn’t have dealt Roloson for someone they don’t see in their long-term plans -- Wishart adds size (6’4”, 222 lbs) the Islanders didn’t have in their current blueline pipeline. While Travis Hamonic is here now, Calvin De Haan might be here next year or the year following, and Matt Donovan is still a few years away, Wishart at age 22 slips in as someone who might grab a spot in that timeline.

As they were for [James Wisniewski], the Islanders are Wishart’s third NHL club. He arrived in Tampa Bay along with Matt Carle as part of the Dan Boyle deal. In 2006 the Sharks traded up to draft him 16th overall (which Michael Fornabaio points out, was a deal that relates to the pick the Isles got from Montreal for Wisniewski).

He was the second defenseman drafted in 2006. (Erik Johnson was first.) Scouts at the time called him “dependable as a Maytag” and some compared him to Eric Brewer, although at least one said Brewer was a better skater.

He’s ripe. This past fall was Wishart’s fifth pro camp. He’s developed on others’ watch, so the Isles get to evaluate him more closely under their own watch and likely take him out of the oven pretty soon. He’s said to be close to NHL-ready, and he was blocked by several older D-men in Tampa Bay. That may have implications for other pending free agents Radek Martinek, Milan Jurcina, Bruno Gervais and Jack Hillen.

He’s an RFA this summer. Speaking of free agents, Wishart is in the final year of his three-year entry level contract (ELC) that carries a $1.22 million cap hit at the NHL level but pays him $62,500 at the AHL level. His base NHL salary this year is $765,000, so he’ll need to be offered at least that plus a nominal raise in a qualifying offer to retain his rights this coming summer.

He’s played only 5 NHL games. The only one of the five -- all in February 2009 -- in which he received meaningful ice time, he was one of two Lightning players to avoid a negative Corsi. (That doesn’t really mean anything, but it was fun to look up.)

For more on the trade, Lighthouse Hockey has you covered.