When he was acquired in the early Spring of 2014, Jaroslav Halak represented something the Islanders hadn’t had in a long time: an actual starting goalie. Evgeni Nabokov had emptied his erudite tank to get the team into the 2013 playoffs and during the following season, saves and wins were few and far between.
Halak also represented the kind of canny trade Garth Snow was once capable of. He signed budget players Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Peter Regin in 2013 and neither could help the team during a funky, frustrating season.