Islanders Sign Radek Martinek; Strome, Reinhart Among Call Ups For Training Camp

Photo courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

By Christian Arnold (@CA_NYHockey)

In wee hours of the morning the New York Islanders announced that they had signed defenseman Radek Martinek to a year deal.

The now 36-year-old defenseman spent last season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but only played in seven games due to injury. Prior to that he had spent his entire NHL career with the Isles. Martinek can be an asset at the blue line, but he has been hampered by injuries over the course of his career.

Martinek is a depth signing for a team that lacks it on the defensive end. Especially with the situation with Lubomir Visnovsky, who still is a question mark if he’ll report to Islanders training camp.

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The Visnovsky situation took another strange turn on Saturday.

Newsday’s Arthur Staple reported that the team had booked him a flight, presumable to New York, yesterday. But Visnovsky never got on.

It’s unclear where things will go from here. Staple believes this will now be a matter sorted out by the KHL and NHL, and it would safe to assume that he is most likely correct.

The situation just keeps getting stranger and stranger, but it will be interesting to see how the league handles this. Most NHL stars that played in the KHL have returned, and the only two star stragglers left are Ilya Kovalchuck and Pavel Datsyuk, who will return following the KHL All-Star Game.

Visnovsky is not a star player by any means, but one would believe the NHL would fight hard out of principle to prevent the KHL from trying this in the future.

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The Islanders also made a few call-ups this morning. They have recalled Casey Cizikas, Travis Hamonic, Jon Landry, Colin McDonald, David Ullstrom and Ty Wishart. Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Strome were both officially called up from juniors.

Among the players not recalled, were Aaron Ness, Matt Donavan and Nino Niederreiter. Though it would be safe to assume that they will eventually be called up some time during the season.