The New York Islanders spent much of last season learning the hard way what happens when the backup goalie position isn’t truly NHL-ready. Ilya Sorokin was forced into a league-high workload, and when he finally needed a breather, the Islanders cycled through Marcus Högberg, Jakub Škarek and even Tristan Lennox, who faced just two shots in his NHL cameo. It wasn’t sustainable, and it wasn’t fair to Sorokin.
So when Semyon Varlamov’s injury updates turned vague and infrequent this fall, newly minted GM Mathieu Darche knew he couldn’t risk a repeat.