CHICAGO — At times, Oliver Wahlstrom seemed to have nine lives with the Islanders.
Finally, though, his career with the club that drafted him in the first round six years ago came to an end on Saturday, as Wahlstrom was claimed off waivers by the Bruins.
The New England native will get a fresh start closer to home, and in the same city where he briefly attended Boston College.
The Islanders waived Wahlstrom and Pierre Engvall on Friday to clear space ahead of Mat Barzal’s likely activation from LTIR for Sunday’s match against the Blackhawks.
Engvall cleared and will likely be sent to AHL Bridgeport.
His future with the club is also up in the air after the season, with a buyout of the remaining five years on his contract looking more and more like a possibility.
It looked last summer like Wahlstrom’s time with the Islanders was over, with both the player and general manager Lou Lamoriello sounding less than fully committed to his future here.
But with the Islanders unable to find a trade to their satisfaction and unwilling to lose a former first-round pick for nothing, they brought Wahlstrom back for a one-year deal at $1 million and he made the roster out of camp.
That did not, however, translate to consistent regular-season performances, with Wahlstrom scoring just four points in 27 games.
Though he drew praise from Patrick Roy recently, he needed to play more consistently to seal up a spot, with roster moves inevitable given the team had a number of players soon to return from injury.
After tearing his ACL in late 2022, Wahlstrom never looked like the same player.
Even before that, though, he got on the wrong side of coach Barry Trotz and had been made a healthy scratch by coach Lane Lambert — a precursor to Lambert regularly scratching him last season as well.
“Every time Lou makes a decision, we always talk about the options that we have,” Roy said, when asked about Wahlstrom. “And sometimes they’re tough calls. We have a lot of good players and sometimes it’s a tough call. Putting guys on waivers is not necessarily an easy decision but we make sure we go with the guys we think can help us to win.”
