Vitek Vanecek is in the unenviable position of having his fate largely out of his control.
The netminder, who signed with the Islanders on a one-year, $1 million deal this offseason, doesn’t need to beat out Semyon Varlamov so much as he needs the organization to decide that carrying a third goaltender on the roster is necessary due to the combined risk of Varlamov’s health and losing Vanecek on waivers.
That was more or less acknowledged outright by coach Pete DeBoer following Sunday’s 2-1 preseason defeat to the Devils, in which Vanecek played the duration and turned aside 20 shots.
“It’s been discussed, and it does handcuff you,” DeBoer said when asked about the possibility of keeping three netminders on the 23-man roster. “I think that’s all gonna depend on how Varly’s doing, how he’s feeling and things like that. I don’t think, in talking with Mathieu [Darche], that we want to go there, but it’s on the table if we have to.”
Varlamov, who should see action in two of the last three preseason games, has shown nothing in camp that indicates he won’t be ready. He is moving well, stopping shots and looking like himself.
The Islanders are not going to deny him the chance to back up Ilya Sorokin as long as that holds true. Varlamov has astonished the entire organization with his dedication to returning to the ice following two partial knee replacements. The Islanders are not going to be the reason his attempt fails.
Nevertheless, there is a practical element to this. Nobody knows what the demands of an 84-game season — the travel, the practices, the 25 to 30 games the Islanders hope to get from their backup spot — will do to Varlamov’s knees. There are no comparable cases to what Varlamov is attempting.
This also comes in the context of the Islanders having overused Sorokin in the past two seasons. The lack of a viable backup while Varlamov was hurt was one of the biggest factors in the Islanders missing the playoffs both seasons.
Vanecek held an .883 save percentage in 22 games with Utah last season — a good deal worse than David Rittich’s .894, a mark the Islanders never trusted down the stretch. If Varlamov (or, for that matter, Sorokin) is hurt, the situation won’t be great no matter what.
But Vanecek is a goalie with more than 200 games of NHL experience. He is a known commodity, and the Islanders can at least feel like they know what they will get from him. They can’t say the same for Joshua Kotai, though the AHL Hamilton prospect — likely next up on the organizational depth chart — has put together a solid camp.
“I’m not thinking about it too much,” Vanecek said of the big-picture situation after Sunday’s match. “Just doing my best, and then we go see what’s gonna happen.”
The easiest way to solve the problem would be for Vanecek to pass through waivers unclaimed. But that’s not a guarantee in a league where nearly every team needs goaltending, and the Islanders won’t know ahead of time whether it’ll happen. The last thing they need is to lose Vanecek to waivers, watch Varlamov break down and then have the decision thrown back in their face.
On the other hand, the competition for roster spots, particularly among the forwards, is very tight. Could the Islanders justify sending Victor Eklund down to keep a third goaltender? What about Kyle MacLean, Mitchell Chaffee or Pierre Engvall?
These are not easy decisions, and they are being made harder by the continuing realization that not only does Eklund look like he belongs, but prospects such as Kashawn Aitcheson and Cole Eiserman also continue to impress.
Organizational depth is a good problem to have,
