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Seymon Varlamov made his return to the net for the New York Islanders on Tuesday night against the New York Rangers. It was his first appearance in an NHL game since he underwent two partial double knee replacements.
The last time Varlamov played in a game was against the Washington Capitals on November 29, 2024, when he suffered a knee injury. 662 days later, he was back in the net for his team.
The 38-year-old has played 621 NHL games, but felt he wasn’t ready to retire. He underwent two partial knee replacements in December 2024 and spent 22 months rehabbing.
It wasn’t a guarantee that Varlamov would be able to return at the NHL caliber, if at all, after his procedure. The team didn’t have an expected timeline for his recovery, there was no sample size to compare it to. This was unprecedented territory, no NHL goaltender has ever had two partial knee replacements and come back.
Varlamov started to feel like a comeback was possible in March 2026. In April, he joined the AHL Bridgepoint Islanders for a couple of games, going 2-0-0.
In the pre-season game against the Rangers, Varlamov split the pre-season game with Ilya Sorokin, replacing him midway through the second period. The team was losing 3-0 when Varlamov entered the game, and ended up winning 4-3. Varlamov had a perfect game, stopping all 10 shots that came his way.
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Tagged: New York Islanders, nhl