New York Islanders: What Could Have Been With Jaro

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Dec 29, 2016; Saint Paul, MN, USA; New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak (41) is pulled from the game in favor of goalie Jean-Francois Berube (30) during the second period against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /

One Too Many Goalies

Starting the 2016-17 the Garth Snow insisted that the New York Islanders roster hold three goaltenders on the active roster. It was a bold unconventional move because you can only dress two goaltenders at a time.

The move worked well for Snow last season when Halak went down with an injury at the end of the season. Greiss and Berube carried the team through the season to a 100 point finish and even earned a first round win against the Florida Panthers.

Unless Garth knew that one of either Halak or Greiss was going to get injured or was going to be traded, keeping three goalies wasn’t going to give the Isles any discernable advantage. But yet there they were: Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss, and Jean-Francois Berube reunited once again.

So why didn’t Garth Snow trade away one of the three at the start of the season?

Halak’s value was likely at its peak with a strong World Cup of Hockey performance for Team Europe and a fair $4.5 million cap hit for what was a strong starter then. Both Greiss and Berube would have been worth significantly less, but still had fair value. The Isles could have even kept P.A. Parenteau and his not at all terrible production of 16pts in 34 games on the team!

Spoke w/ Garth Snow-Focused on wins.If there was an opportunity to add a player now or future for Jaro he would have done it already. #Isles
— Shannon Hogan (@Shannon_Hogan) December 30, 2016

According to Garth the reason he didn’t trade Halak is because there wasn’t an opportunity to add a player, either now or in the future. Which sounds like some made up GM talk for, I didn’t try.

I get it, there’s no way Snow could have known that things would turn out this way in terms of Halak’s on ice performances. All indicators pointed to another standard Halak year. But because he kept two other keepers, he made a bad situation much much worse.