Rick DiPietro, who has been plagued by knee injuries throughout his career, underwent meniscus surgery in June and played in only one of the Islanders pre-season games. Islanders head coach Scott Gordon stated that he rested his number one for pre-cautionary reasons.
TSN reports that he has swelling and fluid around his surgically repaired left knee.
DiPietro has an incredible 13 years left on his current contract at $4.5-million a season. He will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2021, when he's a few months from turning 40. There are $54-million to be paid out beyond this season. A brilliant move by owner Charles Wang.
If DiPietro misses a lot of games this season, the Islanders may just jump ahead of the Leafs in the Tavares lottery.
