Thursday marks two weeks since Islanders training camp began and a week until the regular-season opener.
Have you seen your No. 1 goaltender lately? Barry Trotz has, but no one else who watches Isles practices and games has yet this season. So what was precautionary at the start of camp is now, despite Trotz’s entreaties to the contrary, a bit more of a concern as it becomes clearer that Semyon Varlamov’s undisclosed injury will likely keep him out of action into the regular season.
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“To be quite honest if we didn’t have Soroky in the fold I’d be more concerned,” Trotz said on Tuesday.
Ilya Sorokin looks to be your opening-night goalie in Carolina on Oct. 14 — and likely through the first three games of the Isles’ 13-game, season-opening road trip. It’s not as dire a situation as it might have seemed had Sorokin not been in this exact position when the 2021 playoffs began five months ago. You’ll recall that Varlamov had what was termed a nagging injury, which he later revealed to be a knee issue, that made Sorokin the Game 1 starter in Pittsburgh in the first round.
Varlamov returned for Games 2 and 3, lost both while not looking like himself, and Sorokin backstopped the Islanders to three straight wins to take the series. Varlamov came back for Game 2 against the Bruins and played all but a half a game the rest of the way.
There’s no clarity on whether Varlamov’s issue now is related to the one from May — if it is, that would seem to be more than a nagging problem. And perhaps Trotz’s concern will grow if this continues on and Varlamov can’t get enough work with teammates once the season starts and practice time is at a premium.
For now, Trotz is still feeling fine with how Varlamov’s recovery is going.
“We’ll take our time,” he said. “If Varly’s not quite ready, Ilya will start. I’m not concerned with overall health. We want him to get to 100 percent so there isn’t anything nagging. I’ve been through this before where nagging things keep nagging. If he needs two weeks now, give him two weeks rather than needing two weeks when we have four games in six nights. This is all about getting him ready for the long haul.”
Trotz confirmed Varlamov isn’t going to play in either of the remaining two preseason games and “the window’s getting a little short” for Varlamov for the season opener. It’s time to prepare yourself for Sorokin to be the guy in net the first week of the season, if not a bit longer.
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Schneider needed Tuesday’s shutout
Varlamov’s situation also means that Cory Schneider starts the season on the Isles roster as Sorokin’s backup, which means the 35-year-old Schneider is an injury away from playing — or might get a crack at his first NHL game since Mar. 6, 2020, if Varlamov is still out when the Isles hit game Nos. 4-6 of the schedule, a three-in-four-nights trip through Columbus, Arizona and Vegas.
Schneider wasn’t terribly good in his first two preseason outings, against the Flyers in Philly and against the Devils in Bridgeport last week. He gave up a couple of softies in that Devils game, one in which the Islanders dominated for the majority of it. So Schneider went back in as the starter on Tuesday in Bridgeport; he wasn’t facing many of the Flyers’ NHL regulars, but he still posted a 24-save shutout in going the distance.
“It was an important game for Cory,” Trotz said after Tuesday’s game. “His previous games he wasn’t at the standard I expect and (tonight) he performed pretty well.”
Schneider is as good a team player as you’ll find, and his willingness to do whatever is needed, whether that means sit on the Isles bench while Varlamov heals or play backup in Bridgeport to 21-year-old Jakub Skarek, makes Schneider a good depth goalie. But he still has to be counted on to stop the puck if need be, so it was good he showed some more of that on Tuesday.
Defense depth sorted out for Trotz
Not that he’s giving anything away as of yet, seeing how the Islanders haven’t put a single player on waivers as of early Wednesday, but Trotz said prior to Tuesday’s game that he has a pretty good idea of where each defense candidate beyond the top six stands.
Erik Gustafsson, in camp on a tryout, got another game in and had two power-play assists on Tuesday. “He’s been pretty good,” Trotz said of the veteran defenseman who has four assists so far in his preseason action. It would seem for now that Gustafsson and Sebastian Aho, whom Trotz also gave some strong praise, have moved ahead of Thomas Hickey in the race for an extra defense slot.
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Gustafsson would need a contract, of course, to stick around. Aho, still just 25 years old and making less than the veteran league minimum, would be more likely to be plucked off waivers than Hickey, who still carries a $2.5 million cap hit. Trotz noted “the business side of things” will also factor into who makes the roster as a depth defenseman because the Islanders will be using long-term injured reserve on Johnny Boychuk to allow them to exceed the salary cap by Boychuk’s $6 million cap hit, plus the glut of forwards in camp, almost all of whom need waivers to be sent down.
So there’s likely a No. 7, No. 8 and No. 9 in Trotz’s mind, but it may not look that way when the Islanders make their roster moves at some point this week.
Salo a pleasant surprise
Robin Salo may not get any more preseason games, given Trotz still has some of the aforementioned decisions to make, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see the 22-year-old defenseman in Bridgeport when the Baby Isles open their preseason this weekend. Salo doesn’t need waivers, and he’s not in the top six for the Isles, so there’s no earthly reason he’d stick around with the big club.
But Trotz has seen a lot to like from Salo’s first camp as a North American pro, so much that Salo earned a real encouraging comparison to Adam Pelech.
“He’s turned out to be a good prospect. He has a lot of those real subtle things that Pelly does — having a really good stick, got that ability to get himself around the puck and make good plays with it,” Trotz said. “I’m happy with the overall details in his game. It’s harder to tell on film, the big ice (in Europe), not a lot of play at the net. I’ve been very impressed with him.”
Forward depth chart?
We’ll have to see whether Matt Martin gets one of these final two preseason games and whether that even matters as to his readiness for the opener next week. Martin’s status will likely have an impact on who stays and who goes beyond the top 12 forwards when the opening roster is set.
Trotz has talked about needing support forwards for different roles, which likely means he wants a spare forward for the top six and a spare forward for the bottom six. Cap and waiver implications might change that calculus; so too might the fact that the Islanders are starting with that six-game road trip before they return home and they may want to bring two extra defensemen rather than two extra forwards along.
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But if you’re sorting the extra forwards by role, it would seem that Trotz is choosing between Kieffer Bellows and Richard Pánik for a “top-six” backup spot and Pánik, Ross Johnston, Michael Dal Colle and Leo Komarov for a “bottom-six” backup role. Bellows looked decent on Saturday alongside Mathew Barzal and Kyle Palmieri, but you better look decent there if you’re Bellows, who doesn’t seem to have enough trust in his game from the coaching staff to fill a third- or fourth-line role.
Pánik’s versatility should certainly help him, and he again on Tuesday played a capable all-around game, sticking his nose in around the net while being positionally solid away from the puck.
Johnston and Komarov played on the bottom two lines on Tuesday with little impact, but they’ve also been around long enough that Trotz knows what they bring. Dal Colle and Anatolii Golyshev haven’t stood out enough, it appears; Golyshev also doesn’t need waivers, so he would likely be a clear choice to go to Bridgeport. Whether the 26-year-old KHL veteran wants to stay there is another story.
Andy Andreoff, Otto Koivula, Cole Bardreau and Dmytro Timashov are still around but likely lost in the shuffle.
The Islanders did put 10 players on waivers Wednesday. Koivula, Bardreau, Timashov, Andreoff and Austin Czarnik were the forwards waived. Grant Hutton, Paul LaDue, Parker Wotherspoon and Mitch Vande Sompel were the defensemen and goalie Ken Appleby went on waivers as well.
Of this group, the 23-year-old Koivula could be the most attractive, though him playing only 12 NHL games the last two seasons might make him too much of an unknown for a claim. Hutton had a decent camp and is the only right-handed defenseman the Isles have behind the three roster locks.
(Photo of Erik Gustafsson: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)