Ruslan Iskhakov appeared in two games for the Islanders in the second half of last season, but those were his only games with the club.
Industry sources told The Post that the 23-year-old, who led the AHL’s Bridgeport in goals and assists last season, is signing with the KHL’s CSKA Moscow.
The news was first reported by Russian news outlet Championnat.
Iskhakov was the team’s second-round pick in 2018 and was considered one of the team’s top prospects, but signs of a slowdown were apparent as he struggled to get promoted despite performing well in the AHL.
At 5-foot-8, his size posed problems in the NHL, and when Iskhakov was finally allowed to play in the final game of the regular season, those issues quickly became apparent.
Following an injury to Matt Martin during the playoffs, coach Patrick Roy tried to insert Iskakov into Game 4 of the first-round series against the Hurricanes, but the winger was unable to make an impact in his limited minutes.
“He did well,” Roy said after the game, “and to be honest, it wasn’t easy coming in like this. The minutes he played, he played exactly how we expected him to and I’m very happy with what I saw.”
Iskakov is one of four restricted free agents the Islanders have yet to sign. The others are Simon Holmstrom, Oliver Wahlstrom and Dennis Cholowski.
Wahlstrom filed for arbitration before the league deadline.
