Islanders bring back Tony DeAngelo and Simon Holmstrom, add Jonathan Drouin, David Rittich

Mathieu Darche, heeding his own warning to stay disciplined in the free-agent market, shied away from lengthy contracts with hefty salaries. But his bevy of moves before and after the market opened on Tuesday at noon helped the Islanders’ roster with short-term depth and long-term flexibility.

“It’s not like because you have the cap space, you have to spend it all,” the recently-hired general manager/executive vice president said on a Zoom teleconference. “I look at the cap and I’m always looking two, three years ahead, also.”

Chief among Darche’s moves on Day 1 of free agency was retaining restricted free agent forward Simon Holmstrom and unrestricted free agent defenseman Tony DeAngelo while importing speedy forward Jonathan Drouin and goalie David Rittich, both UFAs. None of the deals were for longer than two seasons.

“We wanted to get Tony DeAngelo done,” Darche said. “He played really well when he came here, he can run the power play. So excited to bring him back at a number that makes sense for us and a term that makes sense for us. And then, we wanted to bring a bit of talent up front, especially to help the power play and that’s what Jonathan Drouin is going to do. He’s an elite power-play player. He’ll play in our top six.”

But signing Rittich, who turns 33 next month and went 16-14-2 with a 2.81 goals-against average and an .887 save percentage in 34 games for the Kings last season, to a one-year, $1 million deal leads to questions about Semyon Varlamov’s availability.

Varlamov, 37, went 3-4-3 with a 2.89 GAA and an .889 save percentage last season, his sixth with the Islanders. But he last played on Nov. 29, missing the final 57 games after undergoing a procedure on his knee in December.

“I expect to be ready for next season,” Varlamov said on April 19 during the Islanders’ breakup day. “Everything is going well with the rehab. The main focus for me is to finish the rehab and have a good summer of training and then I can be ready in September for training camp.”

Now the Islanders have both Rittich and last year’s fill-in backup, Marcus Hogberg, under contract behind Ilya Sorokin.

“You never have enough goalies,” Darche said. “The rehab is going well but we still have to prepare in case something happens.”

Drouin, 30, who was limited to 43 games with the Avalanche last season because of upper- and lower-body injuries but still notched 11 goals and 26 assists, signed a two-year, $8 million deal. Holmstrom, 24, the 23rd overall pick in 2019 who took a giant leap in his development last season with 20 goals and 25 assists in 75 games, agreed to a two-year deal worth $7.25 million.

The right-shooting DeAngelo, 29, received a one-year deal for $1.75 million. He joined the Islanders on Jan. 25 after starting the season in the Russian KHL and had four goals and 15 assists over the season's final 35 games.

DeAngelo’s signing, along with the eight-year, $50 million deal pending RFA Alexander Romanov, 25, received on Monday were crucial after Darche traded defenseman Noah Dobson to the Canadiens on Friday after a contract impasse. Dobson promptly signed an eight-year, $76 million deal with Montreal.

“Defensemen, the prime years are 24 to 32-33,” Darche said of Romanov’s contract. “We’re getting all his prime years and the cap is going to go up. We have cost certainty on a player for the next eight years as our team keeps improving.”

Darche also signed UFA defensemen Ethan Bear, 28, and Cole McWard, 24, to two-way deals to bolster the organizational depth. Forward Matthew Highmore, 29, also received a two-way contract.

The signings left the Islanders with $3.5 million in space under the $95.5 million salary cap with 23 players signed. Darche said RFA forwards Marc Gatcomb, Maxim Tsyplakov and Emil Heineman would agree to deals shortly. All but Heineman, acquired from the Canadiens as part of the Dobson trade, have arbitration rights.

Darche added he did not expect UFA forward Hudson Fasching to return after three seasons with the organization. UFA defenseman Mike Reilly agreed to a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the Hurricanes on Tuesday while defenseman Scott Perunovich signed a one-year, two-way deal worth $775,000 in the NHL with the Utah Mammoth.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.