Vitek Vanecek is in the unenviable position of having his fate largely out of his control.<\/p>\n
The netminder, who signed with the Islanders on a one-year, $1 million deal this offseason, doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s health and losing Vanecek on waivers.<\/p>\n
That was more or less acknowledged outright by coach Pete DeBoer following Sunday\u2019s 2-1 preseason defeat to the Devils, in which Vanecek played the duration and turned aside 20 shots.<\/p>\n
New York Islanders goaltender Vitek Vanecek defends Vladimir Dravecky (71) during training camp at the Northwell Health Ice Center, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in East Meadow, N.Y. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been discussed, and it does handcuff you,\u201d DeBoer said when asked about the possibility of keeping three netminders on the 23-man roster. \u201cI think that\u2019s all gonna depend on how Varly\u2019s doing, how he\u2019s feeling and things like that. I don\u2019t think, in talking with Mathieu [Darche], that we want to go there, but it\u2019s on the table if we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varlamov, who should see action in two of the last three preseason games, has shown nothing in camp that indicates he won\u2019t be ready. He is moving well, stopping shots and looking like himself.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, there is a practical element to this. Nobody knows what the demands of an 84-game season \u2014 the travel, the practices, the 25 to 30 games the Islanders hope to get from their backup spot \u2014 will do to Varlamov\u2019s knees. There are no comparable cases to what Varlamov is attempting.<\/p>\n
New York Islanders\u2019 Vitek Vanecek poses for a portrait during media day at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, Wednesday, September 16, 2026. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Vanecek held an .883 save percentage in 22 games with Utah last season \u2014 a good deal worse than David Rittich\u2019s .894, a mark the Islanders never trusted down the stretch. If Varlamov (or, for that matter, Sorokin) is hurt, the situation won\u2019t be great no matter what.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t say the same for Joshua Kotai, though the AHL Hamilton prospect \u2014 likely next up on the organizational depth chart \u2014 has put together a solid camp.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about it too much,\u201d Vanecek said of the big-picture situation after Sunday\u2019s match. \u201cJust doing my best, and then we go see what\u2019s gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The easiest way to solve the problem would be for Vanecek to pass through waivers unclaimed. But that\u2019s not a guarantee in a league where nearly every team needs goaltending, and the Islanders won\u2019t know ahead of time whether it\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov speaks with the media during training camp at the Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow, N.Y., Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Organizational depth is a good problem to have,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vitek Vanecek is in the unenviable position of having his fate largely out of his control. The netminder,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[389,394,385,47227,99],"class_list":["post-855469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ilya-sorokin","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-nhl","tag-semyon-varlamov","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}