After back-to-back years of winning a few playoff rounds, the New York Islanders missed the postseason entirely. They got off to a slow start and battled with injuries at times throughout the year. Going into next season, the organization is in an odd spot.

They have a lot of their core players signed on long-term contracts and are an older hockey club. They don’t have a lot of youth coming through their system and may look at this offseason as an attempt to remedy that.

The Islanders don’t have a lot of options that would make sense for the Sabres, however, the two that they do have are perfect fits. One is a goaltender and the other is a right-shot defenseman. These are the two position groups that’ll likely be at the top of Kevyn Adams’ shopping list this summer.

Islanders Offseason Outlook

2022-23 Projected Cap Space (via Cap Friendly): $12.255 million

Key Restricted Free Agents: Noah Dobson and Kieffer Bellows (arbitration-eligible)

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: Zdeno Chara and Andy Greene

1. Semyon Varlamov | G | Age 34 | One-year, $5 million

The first player that the Sabres could have an interest in is veteran goalie, Semyon Varlamov. Ilya Sorokin has taken over the net in Long Island for the foreseeable future and he has a good contract to go along with it.

It’s not a certainty that Varlamov would be made available. There are a few factors that could prevent it from happening. First off, he carries a modified no-trade clause. According to Cap Friendly, he provides the Islanders with a 16-team no-trade list. One would assume the Sabres have a high likelihood of being on that list.

The other piece is that they may want to keep Varlamov around one more year to be a mentor for fellow Russian, Sorokin. There are reports that they have a good relationship and the Islanders may want to keep that going for now.

Having said all of that, the Islanders do only have five picks in the 2022 NHL Draft. They may want to use Varlamov as a piece to bring back some assets to boost their pipeline.

Varlamov would provide the Sabres a good short-term solution to kick their decision on the future in goal down the road. He has played in a lot of big games for the Islanders the last few years and would bring experience to a group that is looking to push for a playoff spot.

From a numbers perspective, they were down this season compared to the last two years. That allowed Sorokin to take control of the crease. While they were not at the level of years prior, Varlamov still ended the season ranked 25th in goals saved above expected among 84 goalie to play at least 250 minutes in Evolving Hockey’s model.

The previous two seasons, he ranks sixth among 90 qualifying goaltenders to play at least 250 minutes in the twins’ model.

The important thing to note when discussing Varlamov is that he’s going to fall into the category of fitting within a tandem that plays close to equal games. He has not played over 50 games in a season since the 2017-18 campaign.

With Kevyn Adams talking about “not boxing out” players from receiving ice time at the NHL level and his confidence in the future aspects they have internally, they may be looking for this type of option to pair with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

2. Scott Mayfield | RD | Age 29 | One-year, $1.45 million

The other realistic option that the Sabres could explore on the Islanders roster is veteran right-shot defenseman Scott Mayfield. He would fit right in when it comes to the size of the other members of the Sabres blue line.

Mayfield is a stay-home defenseman that could be a good partner for Owen Power next season. He has been reliable in his own end throughout his career.

In Evolving Hockey’s goals above replacement model this past season he ranked 41st among all defensemen in even-strength defense. Once you move away from his impact defensively, there start to be some small concerns in his game. Especially for the type of system Don Granato likes to run.

Mayfield doesn’t bring much of anything offensively and his puck moving ability isn’t that great either. Looking at Corey Sznajder’s microstats below you can see that theres’ not a lot he provides in transition or exiting the zone.

Now, that can be corrected if he’s put with a partner like Power that will handle most of the transition duties. The problem comes in when I look at the type of defenseman that Granato likes to deploy. He appears to prefer players that can move well, move the puck, and are able to be a part of the offense. Think about how much we saw the defensemen in the second half of the season skating around the offensive zone as part of the play. I’m not sure that Mayfield fits for that type of system.

I’m by no means ruling him out as an option because he does provide something that this club needs. Especially for the crowd that believes the Sabres could use a little more sandpaper on their roster.

Data via: Corey Sznajder, Evolving Hockey, and Cap Friendly

Photo Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports