My Take: Apologies to the fans here at Isles Talk. My original philosophy on Bolduc’s development was that he was going to have a 7th defenseman role and be given the Noah Dobson treatment where he played roughly 40 games before becoming a regular. My mistake came when I looked at his age (22) and realized he had one more year of waiver eligibility. So my latest writings had Bolduc back in Bridgeport to get the Devon Toews treatment. So we’re back to the Dobson treatment. But……
I will still go with the stance of I don’t think he’s ready for full-time, 82 game NHL season with the Islanders, so there’s three scenarios I currently see playing out:
First: Bolduc get’s the Dobson treatment and is groomed in and as his skills and confidence grows, he’ll receive more ice time.
Second: The Islanders make a trade to improve the overall defense of the team and Bolduc is slotted in the third-paired line with a more experienced defensive player (maybe can put up more offensive points too).
Third: Bolduc is paired with Sebastian Aho or Grant Hutton, should the Isles not do anything and Scott Mayfield is not on the team.
