Islanders call up Cal Ritchie, send Marshall Warren to Bridgeport; Mathew Barzal back in lineup

WASHINGTON — The end of Marshall Warren’s first call-up with the Islanders on Friday was necessary for the start of  Cal Ritchie’s first tenure with the team,  which came a day later than expected after his flight on Thursday was canceled because of bad weather.

The 20-year-old rookie center, a key piece of the Brock Nelson deal at last season’s trade deadline, was inserted into the Islanders’ lineup against the Capitals on Friday night at Capital One Arena after being recalled from their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport even as Mathew Barzal was reinserted after a one-game benching for disciplinary reasons.

“There’s a set bus time in the morning. And I wasn’t on it,” said Barzal,   who missed the team bus to Thursday’s morning skate  before a 6-2 loss in Carolina. “I was there for the meetings and everything. But Mathieu [Darche, the general manager], at the start of camp, made it clear that punctuality was a big thing. He wants to set a culture here, as do all the players here. So unfortunately, I was the first guy to have an alarm clock issue.”

Barzal said Thursday was the first time he had been late.

“There was a ton of dialogue, no hard feelings from both sides,” he said. “It obviously killed me not playing. It’s funny, when I was 8, 10 years old, if I did something wrong, my dad wouldn’t take away my Xbox or PS4. He wouldn’t let me shoot pucks in the garage. Not playing yesterday was super-tough.”

Warren, a 24-year-old defenseman from Laurel Hollow who played his first two NHL games to start this four-game road trip, was reassigned to Bridgeport.

“He’s a phenomenal kid,” coach Patrick Roy said. “He was so grateful for the opportunity. He said, going back, he’s going to work even harder to be back. I thought that was a good experience for him. He knows he can play at that level. When you never have played in the league, you’re a little nervous. You almost second-guess yourself, ‘can I play at that level?’ I think now he knows it’s for him.”

 Warren notched two assists in his memorable NHL debut  in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss in Philadelphia and also played while Alexander Romanov recovered from an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss in Boston. But he was a healthy scratch for Thursday night’s loss in Carolina as Romanov returned.

Roy, who had expected to have Ritchie available, instead used Adam Boqvist as a seventh defenseman.

Warren had been pulled off the ice at Thursday’s morning skate in anticipation of his return trip to Bridgeport. Instead, he stuck around for the game after Ritchie’s flight from stormy New York to Raleigh, North Carolina, was canceled.

“It was pretty crazy,” Ritchie said. “I was on the ice in Bridgeport, ready to pack up and leave to go to Wilkes-Barre to play on the road. And I got told to get off the ice and pack up my stuff and go to the airport. So I did that and then a lot of delays, a lot of cancellations yesterday with the weather. I was disappointed yesterday, but I’m glad I was able to make it today.

“It was pretty painful to see the delays coming in. I was always checking the timing, how long the flight is, hopefully I can make it to the game. I realized it was going to be canceled when the weather was pretty bad. So I was disappointed, but I’m glad I’m here now.”

Ritchie said he traveled to Washington on an 8:30 a.m. flight.

He stood out during his first training camp with the Islanders but suffered a lower-body injury in the preseason finale. The organization wanted him to get experience as a No. 1 center, and he has one goal and two assists in three games for Bridgeport.

Ritchie, selected 27th overall in 2023, played seven games for the Avalanche last season — scoring his only goal against the Islanders — before being returned to his junior team, Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey League.

“Since being sent back, we’ve been trying to work on all the things we need to get back to this level,” Ritchie said. “At the NHL level, it’s a dream.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.