Breaking: Stepehn Gionta is back, signs a new 1 year deal.

One more year for NHL veteran.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Stepehn Gionta is back, signs a new 1 year deal.
Eric Canha/CSM/Zuma

Sometimes one man's pain is another man's gain.

The New York Islanders organization revealed earlier this week that 27 year old Casey Cizikas had once again been injured and that he was likely due to miss some game time as a result of whatever it is that is currently plaguing him. Now initially the situation didn't seem all that bad, Cizikas' injury aside, due to the fact that head coach Barry Trotz indicated that this would be a short term injury. Cizikas was missing from the Islanders practice on Friday and reporters were quick to ask about his status moving forward. Trotz informed him that Cizikas would be day to day with his injury which appeared to indicate it wasn't particularly serious. 

Now however a new report from the Islanders appears to suggest that things may be considerably more serious than originally believed and although it's only speculation at this time we have some pretty good circumstantial evidence to support the theory. First and foremost the Islanders have now played Cizikas on injured reserve retroactive to October 8th which indicates that he will be out at minimum a few more days, but it could also be a sign of the fact that he may be out for much longer than that as well. 

The biggest red flag however was the announcement that immediately followed the reveal that Cizikas would be placed on injured reserve the announcement that the Islanders were signing a new player to their roster. According to an official report from the Islanders organization the team has agreed to a new 1 year contract with long time NHL veteran Stephen Gionta, the details of the deal have not been disclosed to the public at this time. The deal will be a two way contract which will allow the Islanders to send Gionta to the American Hockey League when needed without having to submit him to the waiver process. 

The move is a rather stunning one when you consider that we are now almost two years removed from the last time that Gionta played in an NHL game, although at the time that game was with the New York Islanders. The 335 year old winger appeared in just 26 games for the Islanders during the 2016 - 2017 NHL regularr season and that was his last stint in the NHL. The following season was spent entirely with the Bridgeport sound Tigers of the American Hockey League and it seemed like that could very well mark the unceremonious end to Gionta''s NHL career.

To his credit though the grizzled veteran continued to stick it out and worked with the Islanders this season during training camp and up until this point in spite of the fact that there was no guarantee that he would get another deal. Although the Islanders have not acknowledge it directly it does seem that the sudden change in Cizikas' injury status has prompted this move and although that is obviously unfortunate for Cizikas it's a terrific opportunity for an established NHL veteran. It remains to be seen though how much time he actually gets at the NHL level this season.

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