Acquiring Andy Greene gives Barry Trotz options on Islanders' defense

DENVER — It’s not so much his actual defense pairs that Barry Trotz is most concerned with as it is the roles the defensemen can play in the game.

Andy Greene’s acquisition has allowed the Islanders coach to put the pieces back in the order he prefers on both accounts for the first time since Adam Pelech suffered a season-ending Achilles’ tendon injury on Jan. 2.

“It’s not necessarily to get back with the pairs but maybe the roles,” Trotz said. “Leds [Nick Leddy] has gone in and killed penalties and done a really good job. But then, there’s not much for the power play so you give Dobber [rookie Noah Dobson] some power-play time and I thought our power play was going pretty good with Leds there. You could load him up with even more minutes. But I don’t think during the grind of it you can do that for very long.”

The Islanders faced the Avalanche on Wednesday night at Pepsi Center to conclude a four-game Western trip which started with three straight regulation losses for the first time under Trotz. It was Greene’s second game with the Islanders since he was acquired on Sunday from the Devils for minor-league defenseman David Quenneville and a second-round pick in 2021.

Wednesday’s game also marked goalie Semyon Varlamov’s first game back at Colorado, where he played the previous eight seasons, since signing a four-year, $20 million deal with the Islanders.

He had allowed just three goals in his previous two starts and made 30 saves in Monday afternoon’s 2-1 loss at Arizona as Greene logged 19:46, including 2:32 on the penalty kill, in his Islanders’ debut.

The left-shooting Greene has slipped into Pelech’s role as righty Ryan Pulock’s partner and as a key penalty-killing pair with right-shooting Scott Mayfield.

Trotz has re-paired lefty Devon Toews — an offensive-minded defenseman who had been playing on a top pair with Pulock — with Mayfield and the lefty Leddy with righty Johnny Boychuk. Those two have been a pair fairly consistently since they were both acquired on Oct. 4, 2014.

The right-handed Dobson was playing on his off-side before Greene’s acquisition.

“When Pelly went down, through the game we’d be mixing D partners through the whole game,” Pulock said. “It’d be a bit of a scramble. I think it’s good to get that stability back of just rolling six defensemen and the guys knowing their strengths and just playing to their game.”

“You got Andy back there and he’s a veteran and he’s a good player,” Boychuk said. “He’s just calm. It helps out back there. When you play with the same partners throughout the game it builds chemistry. When you’re not, you have to adjust your game a little bit. It’s good to have solid pairings but it’s also good to play with each other just in case somebody does go down.”

Greene’s acquisition has forced Dobson back into the reserve, seventh defenseman’s role.

“I think we can play with anyone,” Toews said. “There’s a little bit of stability for sure. We’ve got seven great defensemen. To have depth in this league is always because you never know when something’s going to happen. We’ve been a little unfortunate with some freak injuries this year.”

Greene’s transition to the Islanders after 13-plus seasons with the Devils — he had been New Jersey’s captain since 2015 — has gone as smoothly as possible, even with the awkwardness of joining the team in the midst of a long road trip.

“We’re trying to win and he’s won in the past,” Toews said. “He’s just a very respected guy. It’s nice to have his presence around. I’m looking forward to picking his brain over the next couple of months.”

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.