Islanders re-sign Daylan Kuefler to two-year, two-way deal

Daylan Kuefler’s best AHL season turned him from a quiet organizational name into a player the Islanders were willing to protect with term. The 24-year-old winger’s breakout in Bridgeport gave New York a more controlled depth option, and it came with a two-year, two-way contract that points to a bigger role in the club’s pipeline.

The New York Islanders announced the deal on June 11, and the numbers explain why Kuefler got it. In 67 games for Bridgeport, he set career highs with 10 goals, 15 assists and 25 points, while also piling up 64 penalty minutes and 100 shots on goal. That mix is part of the appeal: Kuefler showed enough offense to matter, enough edge to fit a lower-line role, and enough shot volume to suggest his production was driven by more than luck.

He also added two Calder Cup playoff games, a small but useful step for a player who had barely been able to establish himself earlier in his pro career. Kuefler, whom the Islanders selected No. 174 overall in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft, had played only 38 combined AHL games across his first two seasons before breaking through this year. He also logged 17 ECHL games with the Worcester Railers early in his career, a reminder that his path has been built through patience, injury recovery and incremental growth rather than an immediate jump.

The contract matters because it gives the Islanders flexibility at both levels. Kuefler was a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, and the new deal reportedly gives him a modest raise from his entry-level contract, which carried NHL and AHL salaries of $840,000 and $82,500. The new agreement is said to pay $850,000 in year one and $900,000 in year two at the NHL level, with higher AHL salaries and guaranteed money, a sign the club wanted to secure a player who has now earned a longer runway.

That matters even more as the organization reshapes its depth chart and prepares for the Bridgeport-to-Hamilton relocation beginning with the 2026-27 season. With New York still looking for inexpensive wing depth behind established names such as Anders Lee, Kuefler now looks less like a stopgap and more like a legitimate call-up option who can bridge the NHL and AHL rosters as the Islanders move into a new phase under Mathieu Darche.