The New York Islanders have a decision to make regarding unrestricted free agent netminder Semyon Varlamov. How much does his friendship with Ilya Sorokin play a part in their decision?
The New York Islanders have a decision to make regarding unrestricted free agent netminder Semyon Varlamov. How much does his friendship with Ilya Sorokin play a part in their decision?
The New York Islanders have a decision to make regarding unrestricted free agent netminder Semyon Varlamov.
The 35-year-old backstop has done wonders for the franchise since signing in the summer of 2019.
Varlamov had been on the Islanders' radar for quite some time, and the Islanders needed a starting netminder as they moved on from Robin Lehner.
But Varlamov, hailing from Russia, served as a potential golden ticket to getting top goaltender prospect Ilya Sorokin to come over from Russia after his second KHL contract ended.
That plan worked like a charm.
Not only did Varlamov quickly become a mentor for Sorokin, in a new country, with a new language, in a new league, but the two built an incredible bond, a friendship that's grown rather strong over the last three-plus years.
"The first day, he helped me. A great human and great goalie," Sorokin said about Varlamov back on Monday. "So I happy I can learn and see to him, and I hope we play together more years."
READ MORE: Islanders Sorokin Chats About Vezina, Workload, & Final Goal
The veteran netminder just finished the final year of a four-year contract with an annual value of $5 million.
Varlamov played a career-low 23 games this season as Sorokin became the clear-cut starter.
He posted a 2.70 GAA with a .913 SV% -- both improvements from an injury, COVID-19 riddled 2021-22 campaign -- when he posted a 2.91 GAA with a .911 SV%.
"It's been great. I was ready for the training camp, 100 percent, and I felt like I had good training camp and good start to the season," Varlamov said about finally being healthy this year. "I feel good about my game, and I feel good physically. That's why training entire summer... it's always nice to be healthy and then go through the summer without any injuries or rehab stuff like that, you know? So I had a great summer, and then I had a pretty good year."
There was opportunities for Varlamov to be dealt at last year's trade deadline, but general manager Lou Lamoriello made it clear how valuable he was to Sorokin and the team.
Varlamov had voiced that he wanted to stay and shared at the end of the 2021-22 season that he was happy to still be here and wanted to finish his contract with New York.
"He's Ilya's biggest fan when Ilya's in the net, and Ilya's Varly's biggest fan when he's in net," former Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said back in April of 2021. "They go everywhere together.
"You see them go for walks… they truly are friends. When they are in the net, they cheer for each other, which is a great attribute to have."
When the deadline rolled around this year, Lamoriello elected to keep his pending UFA goaltender.
"It was never even a thought in our mind," Lamoriello said back on Apr. 1 about moving Varlamov.
Varlamov, again, had made it known he wanted to stay.
It does help to have a 16-team no-trade clause, but that's a conversation for another day.
Although wanting to help the Islanders down the stretch, Varlamov played in just three of the Islanders' final 17 regular season games (two starts) before watching the entirety of the postseason from the bench.
There's no question Varlamov still has the skill to be a starting netminder in the NHL, and there are likely a few teams that would offer him a starting salary.
Despite the lack of playing time, Varlamov clearly wants to remain with the organization.
"It didn't change anything. Like I said before, I want to stay with the team, you know? I told you before that, and then nothing's changed," Varlamov said.
It takes two to tango, and Varlamov doesn't know if the feeling is mutual.
"I cannot really tell you that I think this question is not for me, you know, for management," Varlamov said. "But like I said, I would love to stay with a team. I have a good feeling about this team and about the future. So I want to be part of it."
And then Varlamov was asked about his relationship with Sorokin.
"Yeah, I mean, he's my good friend. I know him for a long time. We had so much fun in the last couple of years playing together," Varlamov said. "It's always nice to come in the locker room and talk Russian, especially with him. We're on the same page. I think, on a lot of things, you know, just joking around talking about the game.
"I had a lot of fun playing, especially with him."
After the Islanders signed Hudson Fasching to a two-year extension with an annual cap hit of $775K, Lamoriello has around $6.2 million in cap space.
The Islanders have to decide what they want to do with pending free agents Pierre Engvall, Zach Parise, Scott Mayfield, and Varlamov.
Not to mention Oliver Wahlstrom, an RFA, needs a new contract.
As you can see, there's not a lot of dinero to go around.
If Varlamov is coming back, he would need to take a 50-percent pay cut.
A new deal around $2.5 million annually over 2-3 years makes sense.
That would leave the Islanders with $3.7 million to sign three players -- if those three other players are to be brought back -- not including Wahlstrom.
Now that allocation of money does not take into consideration that Josh Bailey and some of, if not all, of his $5 million cap hit will be out the door this summer based on his comments from Monday.
READ MORE: Bailey Opens Up About Tough Season, Future With Islanders Anything But Certain
Let's say the Islanders move on from Bailey's full amount.
That would give the Islanders around $8.7 million, a bit more flexibility to bring Varlamov back and address some other areas.
Looking back, there's no question Varlamov out-performed his four-year contract.
Not only did he play a part in Sorokin coming over and his development into one of the best netminders in the NHL, he helped Sorokin assimilate into North American life.
He also played an integral part in back-to-back runs to the semi-finals in 2020 and 2021 as their starting netminder while Sorokin watched and learned.
Yes, Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy coming over before the 2014-15 season, along with netminder Thomas Greiss a year later, set the pavement down for a strong foundation.
But Varlamov's consistency in goal and mentorship to young players and Sorokin allowed the Islanders to build on that foundation and have success for an organization that lacked it.
If Semyon Varlamov is willing to sign a contract in the $2-2.5 million range, that's one less thing the New York Islanders need to worry about, and it would keep Ilya Sorokin a happy camper, a player who can sign a long-term contract this summer.