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Islanders Notes: Varlamov, Engvall, Duclair

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While Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov resumed skating last month following a season-ending knee surgery last December, there’s still no timeline for his return to the lineup, the team told reporters, including Ethan Sears of the New York Post. Varlamov said at last season’s exit interviews that he felt he would be ready for training camp, so this amounts to yet another setback in a saga that’s left the 37-year-old out of playing action for nearly 10 months now. He only made 10 appearances last season before going under the knife, posting a 3-4-3 record and a .889 SV% with a 2.89 GAA. With his health a point of concern, the Isles inked experienced backup David Rittich to a one-year, $1MM deal when free agency opened to give Ilya Sorokin a capable No. 2 option regardless of Varlamov’s status.

Other updates as training camp gets underway on Long Island:

  • Winger Pierre Engvall had offseason hip surgery that will delay his arrival at training camp. The team told Andrew Gross of Newsday that they expect him on the ice in two to three weeks, ruling him out for the preseason and threatening his availability for their season opener on the road against the Penguins on Oct. 9. Any hope he had of cracking the opening night lineup after clearing waivers twice last season has been significantly slashed, regardless of if he’s medically cleared to play. The 6’5″ lefty had an 8-7–15 scoring line in 62 appearances last season, just the second year of an oft-chastized seven-year, $21MM commitment made to him in 2023.
  • As expected, winger Anthony Duclair has reported to camp and is skating today after ending last season on a leave of absence, according to Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He left the team in the last few days of the 2024-25 campaign after some harsh criticism from head coach Patrick Roy, although that relationship has evidently been repaired. Duclair said this week that he returned too early from the lower-body injury he sustained in his first few games as an Islander last year, saying he “basically played on one leg” after sustaining a rather significant groin tear.

Islanders Notes: Duclair, Horvat, Barzal, Varlamov

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Veteran winger Anthony Duclair was among the centerpiece additions of the New York Islanders’ 2024 offseason, signing a four-year, $3.5MM contract with the team. His first campaign on Long Island fell well short of expectations, though, and today Duclair shared some more detail on what happened in 2024-25 with The Hockey News’ Stefen Rosner. Duclair said that he tore his groin “right off the bone” in the fifth game of last season, and was initially given a four-to-six week timeline. But after almost four weeks, Duclair’s injury still had not healed, and according to Duclair, he “ended up playing too early.”

As a result, Duclair said the injury “hindered [him] the rest of the season,” to the point where he says he “basically played on one leg.” Duclair’s box score numbers last season were well below his career standards – his seven goals and 11 points across 44 games is a far cry from the 24 goals, 42 points he managed the year prior. Thankfully for Duclair, he told the media today that he feels he is at 100% health heading into Islanders training camp, and the Islanders will need him in his best form if they’re going to be able to return to the playoffs after falling short in 2024-25.

Some other notes from Long Island:

  • Islanders head coach Patrick Roy spoke to the media today, including team reporter Rachel Luscher, and shed some light on how he views his team’s lineup heading into camp. He told the media that his plan is to begin camp with Bo Horvat centering new offseason additions Jonathan Drouin and Maxim Shabanov. Roy’s comments are notable due to the fact that Horvat had previously spent significant time centering star Mathew Barzal. Drouin, 30, signed a two-year, $4MM AAV deal in New York and scored 11 goals, 37 points in just 43 games last season. Shabanov, 24, is entering his first pro season in North America and managed 23 goals and 67 points across 65 regular-season games in the KHL.
  • With Shabanov and Drouin occupying spots alongside Horvat, that leaves Barzal likely to begin training camp back at his natural position of center. While Roy did emphasize that lineup decisions, especially so early in training camp, remain fluid, Barzal is expected to begin camp centering captain Anders Lee and veteran Kyle Palmieri. Barzal has done some of his best work in the NHL at the center position, including Calder Trophy-winning rookie campaign that saw him score 85 points in 82 games.
  • Roy also updated the media of the status of veteran netminder Semyon Varlamov, who remains under contract through 2026-27 at a $2.75MM cap hit. Injury limited Varlamov to just 10 appearances last season, and the Islanders turned to SHL import Marcus Hogberg in his absence. Roy said today that while Varlamov has begun skating, his status for training camp remains to be determined. Should Varlamov be unable to resume his role as the club’s backup, Hogberg will compete with offseason addition David Rittich for the spot behind starter Ilya Sorokin. Although Hogberg has the advantage over Rittich in that he has already spent a year with the Islanders, Rittich is the more NHL-experienced netminder of the two and his $1MM cap hit suggests he should be viewed as the front-runner to win the role entering training camp.

Mathew Barzal Ready For Islanders Training Camp

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Star New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal will be ready for full involvement in the team’s upcoming training camp, per a recent interview with Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He will return after missing 52 games of last season with an upper-body injury early in the year, and a season-ending knee-injury in February. Barzal told Rosner that he’s embraced a strong mindset in the wake of the significant injury. He said:

When you have an injury like the one I did, you can go two ways with it mentally. You can kinda sulk in it, let it kinda own you. And it did early on… but then you flip a switch and you put everything into rehab and getting better. Mentally, it’s just a matter of doing whatever it takes to get back to being the player I was

Barzal performed like New York’s top forward through the mix of injuries last year. He began the season with five points in 10 games, while averaging more than 21 minutes a night, before injury forced him to miss all of November and the first half of December. He returned to scoring quickly once he was back to full health, netting 15 points in 20 games between December 15th and February 1st. But an injury sustained on a blocked shot against the Tampa Bay Lightning proved too much to overcome. What was initially prognosed as a six-week injury turned into a minor surgery that required all summer to recover from. His season ended with six goals and 20 points in 30 games, or an 82-game scoring pace of 55 points.

An injury-riddled season was the last thing Barzal needed after reclaiming the Islanders’ scoring title in the 2023-24 season. He scored 23 goals and 80 points in as many games that year, marking the most Barzal had scored since he posted 85 points in his Calder Trophy-winning season in 2017-18. That performance was, itself, a solid comeback season after Barzal missed 24 games of the 2022-23 season with a separate knee injury. He had scored 51 points in 58 games prior to that injury.

Excitement for Barzal’s return will be a feeling shared by team, fans, and player. The 28-year-old told Rosner that he would be open to playing throughout the lineup, and mentioned that he enjoyed playing on the wing of Bo Horvat. Barzal shared roughly 71 percent of his ice time with Horvat between 2023 and 2025. Together, the two were on-ice for a tremendous 121-to-70 goal differential and 115-to-76 expected goal differential, per NaturalStatTrick. Horvat dropped to a negative goal-differential (83-to-109) in his minutes away from Barzal, likely speaking to the Islanders’ odds of reconnecting the duo next season.

Then again, New York wields a much sharper lineup than when Barzal last played. The squad, commanded by rookie general manager Mathieu Darche, has reeled in multiple new faces – including Jonathan Drouin, Maxim Shabanov, and Emil Heineman. All three forwards offer interesting upside, and wing depth, that could better define Barzal’s long-term role at either center or wing. One of the three will likely join him on the team’s top power-play unit as well. Those changes, plus the excitement of 2025 first-overall pick Matthew Schaefer, will bring Barzal to a Islanders lineup with much more upside than the one that he left behind last season.

Latest On Emil Heineman

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  • The centerpiece of the New York Islanders’ trade of star defenseman Noah Dobson to the Montreal Canadiens this summer was undoubtedly the two first-round picks the team acquired. But alongside those picks, the Islanders also added young winger Emil Heineman, who had a sneaky-good rookie campaign in Montreal before an injury suffered via a car accident stifled his momentum. Heineman had 10 goals and 17 points in 37 games before the injury, and he spoke to The Hockey News’ Stefen Rosner about his expectations for his first campaign on Long Island. Heineman told Rosner that his experience last year allowed him to learn “how to play in the NHL” and “how to stay in the league,” and added that he’s excited to bring his “200-foot game” to head coach Patrick Roy’s lineup. The 23-year-old is a 2020 second-round pick and will play on a $1.1MM AAV contract that runs through the 2026-27 campaign.

Islanders’ Jesse Nurmi Out Four To Six Weeks After Knee Procedure

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According to a team announcement, New York Islanders prospect Jesse Nurmi will miss the next four to six weeks following a procedure on his left knee. Nurmi was projected to begin the year with the AHL Bridgeport following the conclusion of training camp.

The Islanders drafted Nurmi, 20, with the 113th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft after an impressive season with KooKoo in the Finnish U20 league. The winger scored 21 goals and 50 points in 41 games with a +21 rating. He was also successful during that year’s U18 World Junior Championships, scoring one goal and five points in five tournament contests.

Nurmi wasn’t afforded a positive season following his selection by the Islanders. An early-season injury during the 2023-24 campaign limited him to 19 games with KooKoo, where Nurmi tallied two assists. Still, he was selected by the OHL’s London Knights in the CHL Import Draft, and he joined them for the 2024-25 season.

Last season was somewhat of a mixed bag for Nurmi. He had a relatively poor transition to North American hockey, scoring nine goals and 31 points in 58 games for the Knights, while tallying another three goals and eight points in 17 postseason contests. That isn’t to say he showed no development throughout his first year in the OHL.

Nurmi was the leading scorer at the 2024 World Junior Showcase, achieving four goals and six points in four games. He added two goals and five points in seven games during the 2024-25 U20 World Junior Championships.

Though he had a slim chance of cracking New York’s opening night roster out of training camp, today’s injury update eliminates any remaining hope. Assuming his recovery remains on the projected timeline, Nurmi will start the season with the AHL Islanders sometime in mid-to-late October.

Barzal (Knee) Ready For Training Camp

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  • Speaking at the NHL Player Media Tour today, Islanders forward Mathew Barzal provided reporters, including Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin (Twitter link), an update on his recovery from a knee injury that ended his season early. While he stopped short of declaring himself fully healthy (acknowledging he might not get back to that point), he will be ready to go in training camp.  Between this injury and one earlier in the season, the 28-year-old was limited to just 30 games last season where he had 20 points.

Islanders Won’t Pursue Extension With Anders Lee Yet

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Winger Anders Lee has been a fixture in the lineup for the Islanders for more than a decade now.  He’s entering the final year of his contract which makes him eligible to sign a contract extension.  However, in an interview for The Athletic with Pierre LeBrun (subscription link), GM Mathieu Darche indicated that their plan is not to pursue a new deal with the captain just yet:

I said to him, ‘Let’s start the year and see where it goes.’ No urgency on his side, on my side. He’s the captain of our team, and I really like the individual. But I’m new to the team, right? There’s no one that’s on an expiring deal, that has one year left, that I’ve re-signed. It’s not because I don’t want to, I had enough on my plate this summer. I’ve got a great relationship with Anders.

The 35-year-old is entering the final season of a seven-year, $49MM contract that has held up okay over the life of the agreement.  He signed it not too far removed from a career-best 40-goal season, a mark that he hasn’t come close to reaching since then.  However, Lee has scored at least 20 goals in five of the first six seasons of the agreement with the one year he didn’t get there being 2020-21 when he was limited to just 27 games.

After a tough showing in 2023-24, Lee rebounded quite nicely last season, collecting 29 goals and 25 assists in 82 games.  Notably, his goal and point totals were the highest he has put up on this contract, suggesting that he still has plenty left in the tank and that he’s someone the Isles should want to keep around a little longer.

Earlier this summer, AFP Analytics projected that an extension for Lee could cost around $6.275MM per season on a two-year deal.  That would represent a small cut from what he’s making now but within the context of a quickly changing salary cap environment, that would seemingly represent a reasonable deal for both sides.

But at the same time, it makes sense for Darche to hold off for now.  He’s still getting to know his new team and if things don’t go well in the early going this season, he might have to pivot from his current approach of not rebuilding.  In that scenario, Lee could potentially become one of their better trade chips so keeping their options open makes sense from an organizational standpoint.  Meanwhile, if things are looking up a few months in, that would still leave plenty of time for Darche and Lee’s camp to start discussions to keep him in New York even longer.

Islanders Sign Daniil Prokhorov To Entry-Level Contract

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Sep. 4: Prokhorov is staying in Russia after all. Instead of spending the year in juniors with Sarnia, the Islanders have announced a loan back to Dynamo Moscow for 2025-26, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross. His entry-level deal will slide accordingly. Signing him now allows them the option to have him in North America next season or assign him to AHL Bridgeport once his campaign in Russia ends.

Sep. 2, 8:30 p.m.: A few hours after the signing was made official, PuckPedia shared Prokhorov’s contract details:

  • Year 1: $775K salary, $97.5K signing bonus, $102.5K GP bonus, $85K AHL salary
  • Year 2: $800K salary, $97.5K signing bonus, $77.5K GP bonus, $85K AHL salary
  • Year 3: $877.5K salary, $97.5K signing bonus, $85K AHL salary

Sep. 2, 10:21 a.m.: While recent Islanders draft pick Daniil Prokhorov signed a two-year contract in Russia just last week, it appears he’s already taking advantage of his baked-in NHL out clause. The Isles announced Tuesday they’ve signed their 2025 second-rounder to his three-year, entry-level contract. Stefen Rosner of NHL.com relays that the signing will precede a loan to the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, allowing him to play junior hockey stateside in his DY+1 after the Sting selected him in the second round of this year’s CHL Import Draft.

It’s more stability and a more competitive environment for the 18-year-old, who likely wasn’t ticketed for a full-time role in the KHL with Dynamo Moscow. He was instead expected to spend most of 2025-26 with their junior club, so he’ll instead be able to play in his age group in a higher-octane and more balanced league compared to Russia’s MHL.

Drafting Prokhorov was a bet on talent and ceiling. While not a well-rounded offensive threat by any means, he did tally 20 goals in 43 games for the MHL’s Dynamo St. Petersburg last year and plays a highly physical yet disciplined game. The 6’6″, 218-lb right winger only recorded 14 PIMs in 2024-25.

He’s a bit of a developmental project and presumably won’t be in the conversation for NHL ice time for a few years at least, especially not this season. Since he won’t hit the 10-game mark, his entry-level deal can slide to the 2026-27 season before taking effect and potentially again until 2027-28 if the same circumstances repeat themselves next year.

What Will The Islanders Be This Season?

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The New York Islanders finished a disappointing 2024-25 season on a positive note by winning the NHL Draft Lottery. They were able to draft defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick. This turned what could have been a lost season into an offseason filled with optimism, as Islanders fans hope that newly appointed general manager Mathieu Darche can quickly retool an aging roster and avoid a complete rebuild. Expectations for the 2025-26 season are more subdued, but with a likely weak Metropolitan Division, the Islanders might surprise some if things go their way this season.

When you say things go right for the Islanders, it starts with overall team health. Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, Anthony Duclair and Adam Pelech have all dealt with serious injuries in recent years, and if that continues into the 2025-26 season, it will be a long one for the Islanders and their fans. Last season was a particularly difficult one on the injury front, and there are no guarantees that this season will be any different. Obviously, the Islanders hope it will be, and if they do, they have a high-reward roster, particularly in the players mentioned earlier.

NHL.com projects both Horvat and Barzal to surpass 65 points, which is reasonable since both players have maintained that range consistently over the past decade. Horvat is expected to reach 65 points after recording 57 points last season in 81 games (28 goals and 29 assists). Horvat has exceeded 50 points in seven of the past nine years and is likely to do so again unless he suffers a serious injury.

Barzal, on the other hand, is recovering from a frustrating year last season, when he scored just six goals and 14 assists in 30 games. He has reached the 80-point mark twice in his career and has recorded 50 points in six of the last eight years. He is projected for 67 points, which would be a solid rebound for the 28-year-old.

One other forward who will be looking to turn the page on last season is Duclair. The 30-year-old was brought in to be a fixture in the Islanders’ top six, but hardly delivered with only seven goals and four assists in 44 games. By the end of the season, he was being left out of the lineup, which is hardly what he or New York were hoping for when he signed a four-year, $14MM contract on July 1st, 2024. Duclair eventually took a leave of absence in early April after his struggles on the ice and recently spoke about it, saying he is excited to play next season and looking forward to bouncing back. For Duclair, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s had to rebound from a tough season, as his career has seen its share of ups and downs. Duclair was non-tendered by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018 as a 22-year-old after a couple of trades and disappointing results. He later signed for the league minimum with Columbus and managed to turn around his fortunes in Ottawa before breaking out with the Florida Panthers. Duclair has played for eight NHL teams and will surely be motivated next season to improve his game.

Speaking of a turnaround, many might argue that the Islanders want more for their netminder, Ilya Sorokin, but it’s hard to blame him for last season’s disappointing outcome. Sorokin was quite good for New York, and although his traditional stats declined with a career low save % of .907, his underlying numbers stayed strong as he posted a +17.4 goals saved above expected (as per MoneyPuck). The 30-year-old goaltender has been a workhorse for the Islanders, playing in over 50 games each of the past four seasons, but it isn’t fair to expect him to perform at his 2022-23 level every year. Sorokin remains a top netminder in the league, and if the Islanders can provide him with some offensive support, they should be alright.

Finally, we return to Schaefer and what to expect from this year’s first overall pick. Islanders management hopes and believes that Schaefer could become the player who defines the Islanders for the next two decades, and there is good reason for that. However, whether he will start making a significant impact remains to be seen. Schaefer will undoubtedly receive a lengthy look in the preseason, and management will almost certainly be seeking a spark from the talented youngster as they try to ignite a blueline that was ravaged by injuries last season and lost their top d-man, Noah Dobson, in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens. With Pelech, Ryan Pulock, and Alexander Romanov all returning, the Islanders have room for Schaefer, and he could be the piece that unlocks their path back to the playoffs.

It’s also possible that Islanders management decides that another year in the OHL is the best course of action for Schaefer, but that will almost certainly follow a lengthy assessment period and possibly a regular-season audition.

Overall, the Islanders enter this season with cautious optimism. They aren’t a Stanley Cup contender, and they’ve approached the summer as such, trading away a top defenseman while making low-risk signings like forward Jonathan Drouin to bolster their depth. They are right in the middle of a retool, injecting youth into their lineup while keeping many of their veterans and even adding a couple. If things go their way, they could find themselves among the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference come April. However, if the veterans who struggled last year don’t bounce back and injuries pile up again, they might end up with a similar result to this season, but without the prize at the end of the road.

Photo by Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Islanders Hire Ian Laperrière As Pro Scout

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Before stepping away from the Flyers during the 2023-24 season, Hart had enjoyed a relatively successful career at the NHL level. The former 48th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft had spent six years in Philadelphia before that point, managing a 96-93-29 record in 218 starts with a .906 SV% and 2.94 GAA. Meanwhile, despite being outed in Round Two by the New York Islanders, Hart’s first trip through the postseason in 2020 was a bright spot in his career, collecting a 9-5-0 record in 14 games with a .926 SV% and 2.23 GAA.

[SOURCE LINK]

  • After spending the last 16 years within the Flyers organization as both player and coach, Ian Laperrière is finally moving on. Earlier today, Anthony Di Marco of the DailyFaceoff reported that Laperrière is joining the Islanders as a professional scout. Seeking the head coaching position of the Flyers this summer, Laperrière was removed from his post as head coach of the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but retained by the Flyers as an advisor. Regardless, Laperrière has finally decided to leave the organization altogether.

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