“I just wasn't ready to retire mentally,” Varlamov said last month. “I just wasn't there. Of course, there were definitely some days it was in my mind when things were not going well. ... I was thinking, ‘Maybe, maybe this is it. I won't be able to come back.’
“(But) I'm finally feeling good and I'm feeling 100 percent on the first day of the training, so I'm very, very excited and looking forward to playing again.”
Varlamov’s comeback became more of a possibility when he played two games at the end of last season with Bridgeport of the American Hockey League. He won both, allowing a total of three goals (.939 save percentage).
“‘Varly’ is going to be a case study for whoever did his surgery,” Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche said. “It’s impressive how he’s come back. Like, and he feels … no medication, anything. I’ve asked our guys, too, ‘How’s he look?’ Because I don’t know much of Varly, you know. So, I said, ‘Does he look different?’ And they said, ‘No, he looks the same. He’s moving well.’ So, that’s great news for us.
“It’s almost inspiring to our guys because he could have rode into the sunset, right, and just collect the last two years of his contract, and hey, he’s had a great career. But the way he’s worked, and he’s done all that, and he feels great.”
Darche previously said he would like to see Varlamov play 25-30 games this season. Ilya Sorokin started the first two games this season for the Islanders (1-1-0), including a 6-0 win against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, when he made 37 saves.
Varlamov is 289-232-71 with a 2.65 goals-against average, a .916 save percentage and 41 shutouts in 621 regular-season games (593 starts) with the Washington Capitals, Colorado Avalanche and the Islanders since entering the League in 2008. He is 32-30 with a 2.44 GAA, .918 save percentage and four shutouts in 65 Stanley Cup Playoff games (62 starts), including helping New York make consecutive trips to the third round (2020, 2021).
He is 10-3-1 with a 2.29 GAA, a .928 save percentage and four shutouts in 14 career games at Madison Square Garden, including 5-1-0 with a 1.55 GAA in six games there since joining the Islanders. Each of those four shutouts have been with them.
“The type of surgeries I've had done, people do it, but no professional hockey players were able to do it and try to come back,” Varlamov said. “That was kind of like a crazy idea, a very risky idea. But I took a risk.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Stefen Rosner contributed to this report
