I’m not shy about openly rooting for the New York Islanders to succeed, so this almost certainly comes from that place, at least somewhat, so there’s the grain of salt for you to take. With that out of the way: I hate what the Islanders did with their crease this past week, and for a lot of reasons.



Let’s start with the reason most fans care about, which is that I simply believe signing Semyon Varlamov over Robin Lehner lowers their chances of success over the coming years. That’s a pretty black-and-white take there. It’s just an opinion, of course, but there’s plenty of reasons to hold it.



Robin Lehner, as most know by now, was a 2019 Vezina Trophy finalist, was the busier part of the tandem that won the Jennings Trophy and won the Bill Masterton for dedication to the game and perseverance. It was an exceptional showing. Letting a player walk after a season like that to sign somewhere else for one year and just five million dollars...