Semyon Varlamov didn’t take the safe road to get back in an Islanders crease. He took the one that sounded, by his own admission, “crazy” and “very risky.”
After years of knee trouble and a surgery so significant that even Pete DeBoer wasn’t sure what to expect, the Islanders goalie could have walked away from the NHL with no shortage of reasons to do it. He had already proven plenty to teammates, coaches and opponents across the league. But retirement wasn’t the answer because, as Varlamov put it, he simply wasn’t there yet.
"I wasn't ready to retire mentally. I just wasn't there," Varlamov said. "I still have a lot of respect and love for the game, and I want to be around this team."
That decision sent him down a difficult path: double knee surgery followed by a long rehabilitation process with very little precedent for what the end result would look like. Varlamov knew exactly how uncertain it was.
"That was kind of like a crazy idea, very risky idea," Varlamov said. "But I took a risk and then had to do a lot of rehab, and then just had to be very, very patient about the whole thing."
He’s back now, and DeBoer says the early signs have been encouraging, even if he tried not to get ahead of himself.
"I didn't want to get excited about seeing him back because it's such a significant surgery and no one has really done it," DeBoer said. "I started to get more excited in the summer because every time I'd come back, I'd see him, he looked great."
The return matters for more than just Varlamov’s own career. It could also reshape the workload for Ilya Sorokin, who carried a heavy burden last season and wore down in the second half after spending much of the year among the Vezina Trophy favorites. DeBoer wants Islanders backup goaltenders to play around 30 games this season, and a healthy Varlamov gives that plan a real chance to hold.
Still, there’s a long way between looking good in the summer and handling NHL games after double knee surgery. Nobody is pretending the Islanders know exactly what they have yet.
But Varlamov has already cleared the biggest test. He wanted one more shot badly enough to chase it through a rehab process that he himself described as risky, and now he’s back where he wanted to be.
In Other News...
Cole Eiserman Could Force A Bigger Islanders Shift Than Expected
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Cole Eisermans path is still going to be decided the hard way, though, with training camp and the preseason set to shape what the opening-night group looks like. For an Islanders team trying to blend immediate competitiveness with a deeper pipeline, the question is not just whether Eiserman is ready, but whether his push forces the club to make a bigger change than it expected when camp began. [Read more 🡒]
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The patch is more than a nostalgia play, though, because it points ahead to a big moment for the franchise and UBS Arena. The Islanders are set to host the NHL All-Star Game in February 2027, their first time welcoming the leagues showcase event since 1983, so this seasons uniform detail is really the first public sign of whats coming. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Camp Opens With One Big Health Concern Up Front
The Islanders opened 2026 training camp with the usual September sorting drill, splitting the roster into Blue, White and Orange groups for practice, but the first day of work quickly turned into a health check. Several familiar names were back on the ice after long rehabs, giving the group a more complete look than the club has had for stretches in recent seasons, and it was a welcome sight for a team trying to get its legs under it before the schedule tightens.
Mathew Barzal was the notable absence from the first skate, and his knee inflammation immediately became the biggest concern around camp. The Islanders are expecting him to be sidelined for two weeks, which puts an early wrinkle in the start of camp and leaves the club waiting to see how the rest of the opening stretch unfolds without one of its most important pieces. [Read more 🡒]