Islanders place goaltender Jaroslav Halak on waivers

Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak somehow finds the puck through a pack of Capitals and teammates parked in front of his crease and nabs it out of the air with his glove.

NEW YORK — The New York Islanders have placed starting goaltender Jaroslav Halak on waivers.

The team announced the move at noon Eastern on Friday. Any of the NHL’s other 29 clubs could claim Halak by that same time Saturday.

Halak is 6-8-5 with a 3.23 goals-against average and .904 save percentage in 20 games this season for the Islanders, who are in last place in the Metropolitan Division. The 31-year-old Slovak counts $4.5 million against the salary cap and has one year left on his contract after this season.

The Islanders have three goalies on their roster: Halak, Thomas Greiss and Jean-Francois Berube, who didn’t make his season debut until Dec. 10. Agent Allan Walsh, who represents Halak and Berube, expressed his displeasure with the three-goalie system in October.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.