{"id":95431,"date":"2025-07-27T00:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95431\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T00:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:47:09","slug":"former-ny-islanders-2023-draft-pick-signs-contract-with-toronto-maple-leafs-affiliate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95431\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NY Islanders 2023 draft pick signs contract with Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">As <strong>New York Islanders<\/strong> fans, it\u2019s always tough to see potential prospects slip away, especially when the team doesn\u2019t come to terms with a player they\u2019ve drafted. That\u2019s precisely what happened with <strong>Justin Gill<\/strong>, the 22-year-old forward selected in the 5th round (145th overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"64\">Gill, a dynamic offensive player who had a breakout season with the <strong>Sherbrooke Phoenix<\/strong> in the QMJHL, seemed like a promising prospect. He posted an impressive 93 points (44 goals, 49 assists) in 68 games, and followed it up with an even better season with the <strong>Baie-Comeau Drakkar<\/strong>, recording a career-high 98 points (40 goals, 58 assists) and finishing with the best plus\/minus in the league (+57). It seemed like the Islanders had found a real gem late in the draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to the 513, Justin Gill\u203c\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\uddde\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7fKX4m0pKp\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/7fKX4m0pKp<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lCaFPT61Nf\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/lCaFPT61Nf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cincinnati Cyclones (@CincyCyclones) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CincyCyclones\/status\/1948080951315070977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">In his first full professional season, Gill impressed with 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in 23 games with the Railers. Before his time in Worcester, he had a brief stint in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Bridgeport Islanders. However, despite his success, the Islanders chose not to sign Gill to an entry-level contract before the June 1st deadline. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">This week, <strong>Cincinnati Cyclones<\/strong>, ECHL affiliate of the <strong>Toronto Maple Leafs<\/strong>, signed Gill. Cyclones Head Coach <strong>Riley Weselowski <\/strong>expressed excitement over the signing, highlighting Gill\u2019s status as one of the top-scoring threats in the ECHL. \u201cHaving Justin on board early in the offseason is a great start to our summer and should definitely get the fans excited,\u201d said Weselowski. \u201cHe instantly provides our lineup as one of the top-scoring threats in the ECHL and at just 22 years old, he is still very much an NHL prospect. A 200-foot player with a high compete level and a will to win, Justin is one of those players who shows up when games matter the most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Time will tell when not signing Gill becomes a decision that the Islanders regret, or if it was the right thing to let him pursue other professional opportunities and let other players in the system develop.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New York Islanders fans, it\u2019s always tough to see potential prospects slip away, especially when the team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-95431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114922444978688101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}