Islanders aren’t rushing to wear neck guards

There hasn’t been a rush of NHL players to don neck protection since former NHLer Adam Johnson died after being cut by a skate blade during a game in England on Oct. 28.

But the Islanders’ Anders Lee said on Monday that’s not an indication of a lack of interest.

“We haven’t gotten anything update-wise,” Lee said before the Islanders faced the Maple Leafs at UBS Arena. “They’ve got to test all these things. You see guys wearing them around the league.

“I’d like to see some final products here. I don’t want to wear anything that’s not going to do anything. Obviously, I’m very conscious of the risks.”

No Islander is wearing a neck protector as of yet.

“It’s got to be on the onus of the player to want to go and do that and get that,” said Lee, the Islanders’ NHL Players’ Association representative. “No one’s really taking the leap here yet.”

The International Ice Hockey Federation has mandated the use of neck protectors for all of its sanctioned competitions, and all youth players in Canada now must wear a neck guard.

Reinforcements

Defenseman Sebastian Aho (injured reserve/upper body), who missed his eighth game, again participated in the team’s morning skate. Coach Lane Lambert offered no timetable on a potential return but acknowledged that acquiring Mike Reilly and Robert Bortuzzo eases some urgency for Aho’s availability.

“It helps having extra bodies,” Lambert said. “You love to make sure that a player is 100% before he comes back off an injury.”

Isles files

Defenseman Grant Hutton was reassigned to AHL Bridgeport. He went without a point in two games after being recalled on Nov. 25 and had been a healthy scratch the previous five games  . . . Forwards Matt Martin and Oliver Wahlstrom remained out of the lineup.

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.