Islanders Recent Top Prospect Heading To Russia's KHL
The New York Islanders forward prospect is expected to sign with Admiral Vladivostok of the KHL, with a deal likely to be finalized before the KHL season opens on September 5.
A few details reportedly still need to be sorted out, but all signs point to the move happening.
Junior Career That Once Suggested Stardom
Maggio's amateur resume made him a legit prospect to watch.
The Islanders selected him 142nd overall in the 2022 draft after he put up 38 goals and 85 points in 66 games with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires that season. He broke out even further the following year, exploding for 54 goals and 111 points in 66 games as team captain, good enough to lead the entire league in scoring and win OHL MVP honors.
That kind of production made his entry-level contract with New York, signed ahead of the 2023-24 season, feel like a formality.
It Never Translated
Maggio spent three seasons with the Islanders' AHL affiliate in Bridgeport without ever earning an NHL call-up, finishing with 35 goals and 81 points across 187 games and a minus-35 rating.
His usage shrank as his contract wound down, with Bridgeport barely playing him during the stretch run of last season and giving him almost no time in their brief 2026 Calder Cup playoff appearance.
His best AHL season actually came this past year, when he posted 33 points, 12 goals and 21 assists, across 63 games, but even that wasn't enough to change the organization's plans for him.
Vladivostok is about as far from Long Island as a hockey job gets, roughly 5,000 miles and 12 time zones away, but the move gives Maggio real minutes and an actual scoring role, something he wasn't going to get in Bridgeport.
He's not the first Islanders prospect to make that call this offseason either, with forward Hudson Fasching having already signed in Sweden earlier this summer.
The Islanders will retain his NHL rights while he plays overseas, technically leaving the door open for a return to North America down the road if he rebuilds his value in the KHL.
At 23, he's still young enough for that path to remain realistic, even if his first crack at an NHL contract didn't produce the opportunity either side was hoping for.
