Free agents and drafts: Saturday notes

Jonathan Bombulie’s and Michael Cignoli’s AHL free agents list is out. It only includes the unrestricted free agents, not guys who may not be tendered by Monday at 5 p.m. Of Bridgeport’s four NHL free agents, then, Joe Finley is the only one to make the Top 100. An assortment of former Sound Tigers are ahead of him.

The biggest Bridgeport news at the draft may have come at the end. The Islanders traded down in the seventh round. With the 200th pick, they took a 20-year-old (he’ll be 21 when the season starts) re-entry: Lukas Sutter, son of Rich, originally a Winnipeg second-round draft pick but unsigned.

The Islanders sent their first third rounder, No. 65, to Florida for a third-rounder next year, then took goalie Ilya Sorokin with their second one. In the fourth round, they took another European goalie, Linus Soderstrom. Then came back-to-back college freshmen, Devon Toews, who played 37 games as a freshman for Quinnipiac (the highest-drafted Bobcat, SID Ken Sweeten notes), with their second fourth rounder, then Ferris State forward Kyle Schempp at 155.

Notes of perhaps local interest: Los Angeles traded Linden Vey, a big piece of Manchester the past few years, to Vancouver for a second rounder. Ryan Donato, son of onetime (literally) Sound Tiger Ted Donato, went a few picks later to Boston. Then the Rangers took a goalie, Brandon Halverson. UConn-bound Miles Gendron went to Ottawa at 70. At 89, Washington took Nathan Walker, who’ll get attention as an Australian, but honestly, it’s just cool that he stays with Hershey, where he played last year. Speaking of Hershey, Eddie Pasquale was traded to the Capitals.

Michael Fornabaio