Everytime we say goodbye we say hello.
The New York Islanders pretty much landed their known targets on the first day of free agency, signing backup goaltender Thomas Greiss, officially inking 2008 draft pick Kirill Petrov to an NHL deal, and announcing the re-signing of Thomas Hickey.
The list of free agents they let walk, mostly AHLers and/or little-used backups, started to find new homes too. Among the notable ones:
- Matt Donovan, who was kept on the NHL roster all last season -- and thus not exposed to waivers -- but bizarrely, rarely used, signed a reported one-year deal with the Buffalo Sabres.