Semyon Varlamov has signed a new contract with the New York Islanders.

We needed a goalie ... but only because Lehner left. AKA because we decided not to keep Lehner.

Atleast Varlamov doesn't do drugs. I believe

Ahh yes, the old lose your goalie and sign a worse one to worse term who is a wife beater just as a cherry on top. Sounds good to Lou I guess...

No he just hits his girlfriend

Don’t perpetuate the lies of his psychotic girlfriend. Look up what actually happened.

Normally I'd just say "allegedly, we don't really know what happened since none of us were there." Especially if the guy who was accused wound up paying some money or something to settle the case. However, considering that his girlfriend wound up being ordered by the court to pay him upwards of $100k, I'm going to go ahead and say it was most likely a baseless accusation.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'd rather have Lehner...

one never knows in the NHL, it's rampant. It's why the players union doesn't allow punishment for drug use.

But this is a decent signing. 5 mil isn't that bad. He's not a horrible goalie he has had good years. But he is getting older. Thank god they didn't do 7 years.

How he got a bigger contract than Lehner is beyond me. But I like the fit for him here. Mitch Korn is the best goalie coach on the planet, and I fully expect that Varlamov is going to be at least a solid starter for them next year.

Love this deal. We're gonna be counting our lucky stars in January that Lou went 4 years when this guy has a .925

I think he's gonna be top 10 in save % and GAA next season w/ the NYI. He's been streaky at times in his career, but he's never played behind as good of a D as the Islanders.

I'm not getting the reasoning. Why would they sign Varlamov, who is older then Lehner, for the exact same cap hit that Lehner got, but for longer term? Especially after the year Lehner had for them?

Wouldn't you rather Lehner?

Not really - injuries are the only thing that keeps this guy down. .920 behind a pretty subpar Colorado defense two seasons ago, struggled with injuries last year. If he stays healthy, there is no reason to think this guy can’t also be a Vezina finalist - he’s finished 2nd before, after all

I've seen people saying things about this guy or signing... My vote for No has to do w/ just his play I don't care about the off ice BS... I wish he was taken down instead of Voynov... Though he fits right in on NY w/ the former AG doing much worse then him but actually being guilty of that among other things . I'm pretty sure w/ FBI HQ in Colorado if this guy was guilty he would have been found out sooner not later. IT is a shame he got to keep a career that declined unlike Voynov though... Still he was like a Vezina goalie they pushed like Bobrovsky is now... I was never high on him, Islanders signing russians like Yashin or other never works out for them. I would rather them roll w/ Greiss, Gibson, and Ilya... That Russian KHL Goalie who is like top in the league over this dude at 5M for sure ...

This signing is looking pretty good now a couple of years later.

Well he was never charged for it so I guess we’ll never know for sure if it was true