Josh Ho-Sang says Islanders ‘had their minds made up’ to put him in AHL

Four years after being picked 28th overall in the draft, Josh Ho-Sang still hasn’t stuck on an NHL roster.

A dynamic and creative talent, Ho-Sang’s all-around ability has been challenged on occasion. When his coach in AHL Bridgeport, Brent Thompson, spoke about Ho-Sang last season, he said he was excited about the player’s upside and potential, but that he still needed to learn to be a better player without the puck.

Ho-Sang again failed to make the Islanders out of camp and has spent the first part of this season back with the Sound Tigers.

“I felt like they had their minds made up on what was going to happen and what the team was going to look like,” Ho-Sang told the New York Post. “It’s OK. They had the whole summer to plan that. I don’t know if you watched any of the games, but I didn’t play a lot. It’s OK. It is what it is.”

It’s not that Ho-Sang has never played in the NHL — he got into 22 games last season and 21 games the season prior, totalling 22 points. But he’s never been able to stick with the Islanders as they’ve tried different things on their four forward lines over the years and went through a bit more of an overhaul under GM Lou Lamoriello in the summer.

It seemed that if Ho-Sang was going get a chance to make this team for good, the 2017-18 season provided a decent opportunity for him to make his case. The Islanders were scoring a lot, but had a tough time on defence and were facing the potential of losing captain John Tavares in free agency. Ho-Sang played NHL games in October, November and December before being sent down and never got another sniff.

In March, long after the Islanders’ playoff hopes had been dashed, he aired his frustration over not getting a late-season call-up. He stated that he had been demoted due to his defensive play, and then pointed out the Islanders were the worst defensive team in the NHL even without him. “I don’t think it’s my fault,” he said.

Over the summer the Islanders brought in veterans such as Matt Martin, Leo Komarov and Valtteri Filppula, who have each taken up spots on the NHL roster. This made it even harder for a player like Ho-Sang to stick out of camp and he was soon returned to the AHL.

This season in Bridgeport, Ho-Sang has four assists and is a minus-8 through nine games and doesn’t feel as though he’s getting the ice time he deserves. He said that he feels there is mixed messaging about his fit and role in the organization and what the expectations are at a developmental level.

“They tell me they want me to be a top-six forward up there, but I’m not a top-six forward down here, so it’s confusing,” he told the Post. “Sometimes, it’s like you’re sprinting with a rubber band on. You constantly have tension. You run until you’re exhausted and then the band is going to pull you back. If I was going to say anything, it would be just watch. I’m just pointing it out.”

Ho-Sang did not criticize the Islanders front office, saying Lamoriello was a “great man” who “has his morals.” But you can understand this frustration from a 22-year-old first-round pick who just can’t crack his team’s NHL lineup, nor get the role he’d like in the AHL. But he would not call his situation unfair.

“There’s no such thing as fair,” he told the Post. “It doesn’t exist, as much as we like it to.”

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