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On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning made another call in an attempt to solidify their goaltending depth, claiming goaltender Kevin Poulin off waivers from the New York Islanders.
It’s just another step forward for a Bolts camp that began camp with Ray Emery in on a tryout to try and win the backup job behind Ben Bishop while Andrei Vasilevskiy goes through a two-to-three month recovery following surgery to remove a blood clot.
The acquisition of Poulin put an end to the Emery experience, as well, as the Lightning have released 33-year-old from camp. Emery, who came to Tampa Bay after spending the last two in Philadelphia, went 0-1-0 and allowed six goals on 36 shots against in his two games with the Bolts.
The 25-year-old Poulin comes to Tampa Bay after spending the last five years in the New York Islanders organization, suiting up for 50 games at the NHL level. The numbers with Poulin are not exactly wowing -- he’s won 18 games and put up an .899 save percentage over that stretch -- but have come with some pretty awful Isle squads in front of him. Poulin’s largest NHL sample came during the 2013-14 season, when he won 11 of 26 starts and posted an .891 save percentage, while he took an overtime loss in a 23-of-26 showing to the Buffalo Sabres in his only NHL appearance last season.
Despite those numbers, Poulin is still a step up from what the Bolts were getting from preseason Emery, and given the fact that they view this as a part-time gig until Vasilevskiy is ready to return, going with a younger, perhaps-still-malleable talent in the younger Poulin makes more than enough sense.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com