Islanders assign Jesse Nurmi to Bridgeport for late-season boost

Jesse Nurmi’s trip from London to Bridgeport was not a routine spring shuffle. When the New York Islanders reassigned the 21-year-old winger on April 8, the move landed at a moment when Bridgeport was tightening its roster for the stretch run and looking for a player who could add both youth and offense without needing a long runway.

Nurmi brings a profile that makes the assignment worth watching. Bridgeport lists the Valkeala, Finland, native as No. 32, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound left-shot forward born March 7, 2005, and the Islanders took him 113th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. He helped the London Knights win the OHL championship and the CHL Memorial Cup in 2024-25, then followed that with a strong final junior run this season, finishing with 31 points in 30 OHL games, including 14 goals and two game-winning goals.

That scoring touch is the reason this looks like more than a depth move. Nurmi already showed he can finish in a faster, more compressed environment, and his numbers in London suggest an attacker who can turn limited ice time into meaningful production. For Bridgeport, which had been piecing together its late-season lineup, that matters. A winger who can skate, push pace and chip in offense can change how a coach deploys the bottom six, especially when every point still carries weight.

The organization has also started the process of measuring him against the pro game. Nurmi made his professional debut with the Worcester Railers this season and appeared in 12 ECHL regular-season games, posting one goal and one assist for two points. That is a small sample, but it gives Bridgeport and the Islanders a first look at how his junior scoring translates once the games get heavier and the space gets smaller.

Bridgeport’s timing added another layer. The Islanders affiliate clinched a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs on April 12 with a 4-1 win over Hartford, a result that also closed out the club’s final regular-season home game in franchise history and extended a home winning streak to a franchise-record 10 games. With the Islanders already announcing plans to move the affiliate to Hamilton, Ontario, for 2026-27, Nurmi arrived in the middle of a compressed, high-stakes stretch where every young body has a purpose. This was not a developmental courtesy. It was a calculated chance to see whether a prospect with real junior pedigree can help Bridgeport now, while the franchise’s Connecticut era winds down.