The New York Islanders placed defenseman Dennis Cholowski on waivers on Thursday.

The Islanders have one open roster spot coming out of the break but might need two as they anticipate the return of defensemen Scott Mayfield (lower body) and Ryan Pulock (upper body) from injured reserve. Both participated in their third straight practice on Thursday ahead of the Islanders’ next game Sunday against the Dallas Stars.

Cholowski, who turned 27 on Saturday, has three goals, seven assists, 10 penalty minutes and an average of 12:48 time on ice in 33 games this season.

The Detroit Red Wings selected him with the 20th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft. He was picked by the Seattle Kraken from the Red Wings’ roster in the 2021 expansion draft.

He has 13 career goals, 27 assists, 38 penalty minutes, 147 blocks and 48 hits while averaging 16:47 of ice time in 150 games for the Red Wings (2018-21), Washington Capitals (2021-22), Kraken (2022) and Islanders (2022-23, 2024-25).

In lieu of traditional All-Star festivities, the NHL opted to put on an international best-on-best tournament this season. The resulting 4 Nations Face-Off has been a resounding success, attracting massive viewership and surprising cultural relevance, which has extended to the sports betting realm.

Sportsbooks across the United States report that the 4 Nations games thus far have outperformed average regular-season NHL contests. DraftKings says that its four most-bet hockey games of the season have been from the tournament, while FanDuel says that 4 Nations contests are averaging over six times as many bets as an average NHL game this regular season.

In particular, Saturday’s first USA-Canada matchup — an epic 3-1 victory for the Americans — was, bar none, the most-bet hockey game of the season. FanDuel says that the contest saw 13 times more bets than all of the 3-on-3 games that made up last year’s NHL All-Star event combined, and 11 times more bets than an average NHL game this regular season.

Caesars Sportsbook’s head of hockey Karry Shreeve says that the book is handling “seven to 10 times” more money for each game, with the first North American rivalry showdown bringing in even more.

“That game we saw just as much handle as we would in a Stanley Cup game,” Shreeve told ESPN. “I think there’s a chance that for Thursday’s final, we could get up to almost Game 7 numbers, which is just incredible in terms of what you’re asking for in the middle of February for hockey. I mean this is completely unexpected and certainly unprecedented.”

While the storied USA-Canada rivalry always raises the stakes, this year’s iteration seems particularly heated given the long layoff of best-on-best action, “words that have been exchanged” between both teams, as well as “politically” motivated sentiments off the ice, per DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello.

“I think that all throws a little fire into it,” Avello told ESPN. “This is something that the fans love and these games are being bet heavily. This game Thursday is going to be a monster as far as betting is concerned, would outdo any All-Star Game.”

With the elevated bettor attention and subsequent higher handle, bookmakers are putting their most diligent work into setting the lines for Thursday night’s championship.

“The 4 Nations has been great from a betting engagement standpoint, particularly as fans look for marquee events coming out of football season,” ESPN BET director of North American trading Adrian Horton said via email. “Thursday night feels like a Stanley Cup Final game from a trading perspective.”

That means the books are expecting a low total. Shreeve points out that, during last year’s playoffs, Game 7s were seeing only “three or four goals,” as teams tend to tighten up when the stakes are highest. As such, Thursday’s over-under has sat at a consensus 5.5 for much of the week and has only juiced further to the under (-135 at ESPN BET); BetMGM reports 30% of bets on the under, but 39% of the money.

Additionally, the money line has stayed remarkably close all week, with ESPN BET keeping the game a pick ’em at -110 for each side. USA is getting a majority of the action at major American sportsbooks, leading BetMGM trading manager Christian Cipollini to say, “Canada winning would be a good outcome for the sportsbook.”

That said, there has been perhaps more support than expected for Canada: ESPN BET reports 46.1% of bets and 46.5% of handle backing the Canadians and BetMGM reports a 5% positive money split on their side. That tension, just as it should be felt on the ice in Boston, is keeping this betting line feeling truly championship-caliber.

“This almost has a Game 7 feel to it, which is absolutely incredible, and so we’re going to treat it as such,” Shreeve said.

BOSTON — Other than the game itself, both Canada and the United States were talking about President Donald Trump hours before playing one another in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.

Trump was a topic of conversation for both teams Thursday with many Team USA players speaking about the call they shared with the president with Team Canada sharing some of its thoughts about Trump once again stating that Canada would become the “51st state” in the country.

“It was awesome. It was one of the cooler experiences I’ve had,” Team USA’s Vincent Trocheck said of the Trump phone call. “Having the president of the United States call your team about a hockey game just seems kind of crazy but it’s pretty cool.”

Team USA and New York Rangers forward J.T. Miller echoed a similar sentiment.

“Pretty cool. It was so awesome to hear the support,” Miller said. “It’s a pretty big deal for us to take time out of his schedule to talk to us. It’s just another one of those things where we’re pinching ourselves this tournament. It’s been really fun so far to see the support from everybody up to the president is pretty wild.”

Miller said that Trump told the team to enjoy the moment and have fun with it with Team USA defenseman Zach Werenski saying he “kind of blacked out” because of the significance of the moment.

Team USA received a call from the President this morning to wish them luck ahead of tonight’s #4Nations championship game. pic.twitter.com/he1kIgUVGW

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) February 20, 2025

A reporter then asked Miller if Trump mentioned making Canada the 51st state.

“I don’t think he brought that up,” said Werenski, who plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets. “He left that one out.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier Thursday that he planned on calling Team USA while later adding that “on toward victory tonight against Canada … will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important Fifty First State.”

With political tensions already in place prior to the 4 Nations, those feelings have only amplified with hockey as its latest avenue. It started with fans on both sides booing during each country’s respective national anthems.

It further escalated during the first Canada-U.S. game last Saturday. There were three fights in the first nine seconds of a contest which ultimately ended with the U.S. winning 3-1 in Montreal. The game itself became the talk of the North American sports landscape and only added to the anticipation of a potential rematch, something Canada secured Tuesday with a 5-3 win against Sweden.

Canada coach Jon Cooper was asked if the political discussion regarding the two countries has entered the dressing room.

“Other than the talk of [Canada becoming] the 51st state and then somebody saying, ‘Wow, we’d have one hell of a hockey team,'” said Cooper, who is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Cooper then further elaborated on the subject.

“Let’s be honest, you’d never get what’s going to be contested tonight,” Cooper said. “The political side of things, we feel [that] for everybody on our side of things. But for us to come here and to be in that room, it’s going to be more for us to win that game, then sit there and debate what the game means. We have to go out there and represent our country and make them proud. If we accomplish that, then I think we accomplish what we want to, which is to make Canadians proud.”

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski contributed to this report.