In and out with Islanders

Chalpik back, Charlottetown team reassigns players to junior A teams

The Charlottetown Islanders are getting closer to having its full roster available.

Filip Chlapik returned Sunday from Europe after playing in the world junior hockey tournament while Kameron Kielly is expected to play this weekend for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury Nov. 14 against Acadie-Bathurst.

The Islanders have 13 forwards, seven defencemen and two goalies healthy while Dexter Weber is rehabbing an upperbody injury sustained earlier this month.

Defencemen David Comeau and Alex McQuaid recently cleared waivers and were assigned to St. Stephen and Summerside, respectively, of the Maritime Junior Hockey League. McQuaid is sidelined with a broken bone in his foot after taking a puck off his skate in practice in late December.

Comeau broke camp as one of the Islanders defenceman, but later in the season had saw time as a winger as the Isles tried to get a better mix between leftand right-handed shots.

“We need him to go back and play,” general manager Grant Sonier said. “We weren’t going to be able to find him any minutes here. He has to continue to improve and get better.”

Forwards Chris Chaddock and Jacob Drobczyk both cleared waivers while Johnny Foley was reassigned to Truro of the Maritime junior league. Chaddock was traded by St. Stephen to Brockville of the Central Canada Hockey League while Drobczyk went to the Toronto Patriots of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

Comeau, McQuaid and Foley are all affiliate players.

“It’s a tough time for some of these kids to be let go,” Sonier said, but “We made some moves to improve our hockey club.”

Forward Quinn O’Brien went home and had wrist surgery and is waiting to have surgery on his hip. He will not be back to play this season.