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New York Islanders: Doug Weight discusses goalie situation

By Nick Ziegler

Apr 6, 2017; Raleigh, NC, USA; New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak (41) comes off the ice after warmups against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The New York Islanders defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 6, 2017; Raleigh, NC, USA; New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak (41) comes off the ice after warmups against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The New York Islanders defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports /
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One of the issues for the New York Islanders in the 2016-17 season was the goalie situation. With some drama in net, what is the plan moving forward?

Coming into the 2016-17 season, the New York Islanders had a challenging situation in net. In the playoffs the season before, Thomas Greiss stepped in and really performed well for Jaroslav Halak.

With Halak back from injury to start the season, the Islanders had two goalies that they felt comfortable starting in net. While having two good goalies is certainly a good thing, it led to some drama.

Halak and his agent were upset with the Islanders, which resulted in trade rumors, and an eventual demotion to the AHL. Greiss became the starter for the rest of the season, but Halak did make his way back on the team toward the end of the season.

Statistically, both were pretty similar last season, as Greiss had a slightly better goals against average.  However, Halak had a better save percentage. With both still on the team, the Weight will likely have to commit to one of them as the starter.

Weight recently spoke with Cory Wright of NewYorkIslanders.com about the goalie situation. Here’s what he had to say.

"To me, we have two great goalies. We have two great goalies who are going to be competing from day one. We are going to lead them, challenge them and make them better, but right now moving forward, we have the biggest prospect pool as far as [Ilya] Sorokin in Russia is probably renowned as the best goaltender outside the NHL and he’s 22 years old, just turning 22. [Linus] Soderstrom in Sweden.They are names you may not recognize, but as much as you want to talk about it, if you want to talk about winning the Stanley Cup next year, we can win with Thomas, we can win with Jaro. They both know that they like each other, but they are competing against each other."

With Halak entering the final year of his contract with the Islanders, Greiss should have the advantage after signing the contract extension. On the ice, Greiss did have a slightly better season than Halak.

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Due to Halak making close to $5 million next season, the Islanders could entertain trying to move him once again. Freeing up some money to sign other free agents wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Islanders. Removing Halak’s salary could help improve the team in other areas. Unlike Capuano, Weight must figure out who will be his starting goalie early on for next season.

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