{"id":471795,"date":"2025-07-01T14:38:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=471795"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:38:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:38:45","slug":"new-york-islanders-sign-veteran-goalie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/new-york-islanders-sign-veteran-goalie\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Islanders Sign Veteran Goalie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/new-york-islanders-extend-depth-defenceman\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a> have added a veteran goalie. <a  href=\"https:\/\/thehockeynews.com\/nhl\/new-york-islanders\/latest-news\/islanders-sign-goaltender-david-rittich-defenseman-ethan-bear-on-day-one-of-nhl-free-agency\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News emerged<\/a> that goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rittida01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Rittich<\/a> has signed a one-year contract with the Islanders. New York also signed defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bearet01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ethan Bear<\/a> to a one-year contract as well.<\/p>\n<p>Rittich&#8217;s contract is for $1 million for the 2025-26 season. Bear&#8217;s contract has a value of $775,000 for the NHL level and $325,000 in the minors<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Isles?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Isles<\/a> News: The New York Islanders have signed goaltender David Rittich to a one-year contract.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NYIslanders\/status\/1940100469726359577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>David Rittich and Ethan Bear Signed by the New York Islanders<\/h2>\n<p>Rittich has played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/29\/calgary-flames-in-talks-to-trade-veteran-forward\/\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/toronto-maple-leafs-sign-depth-forward\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/30\/nashville-predators-acquire-defenceman-and-sign-him-to-a-new-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/28\/winnipeg-jets-extend-defenceman-2\/\" target=\"_self\">Winnipeg Jets<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/los-angeles-kings-sign-depth-forward\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a> over his nine-year NHL career. The Czech netminder appeared in 34 games and had a 16-14-2 record with a 2.84 goals-against-average. The 32-year-old also logged an .886 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Rittich has represented his native Czechia at the international level. He played for his home country in the 2018 IIHF Worlds and was in the 2020 NHL All-Star Game.<\/p>\n<p>Bear has played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/edmonton-oilers-trade-depth-forward-to-boston\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/report-carolina-hurricanes-acquire-defenceman-from-new-york-rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/canucks-re-sign-goal-scorer\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/washington-captials-extend-defenceman-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Capitals <\/a>over his six-year NHL career. The Regina, Saskatchewan native spent all season with the Hershey Bears of the AHL.<\/p>\n<p>Bear has also played at the international level, but he represented his native Canada. He was part of the gold-medal winning squad at the 2023 IIHF World Championships.<\/p>\n<h3>What It Means<\/h3>\n<p>This two signings are depth ones for an Islanders squad looking to get back into post-season contention. These players will provide depth and support to the Islanders roster.<\/p>\n<p>Rittich showed flashes of his old self at times with the Kings. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuempda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darcy Kuemper<\/a> won the job, but Rittich played well for the Kings last season.<\/p>\n<p>Bear is looking to get back to the NHL level and spending time on Washington&#8217;s AHL club. The Bears are one of the better teams in the league. However, Bear is looking to return to the NHL level. These aren&#8217;t the flashiest signings, but they&#8217;ll help the Isles&#8217; roster.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Islanders have added a veteran goalie. News emerged that goaltender David Rittich has signed a one-year contract with the Islanders. New York also signed defenceman Ethan Bear to a one-year contract as well. Rittich&#8217;s contract is for $1 million for the 2025-26 season. Bear&#8217;s contract has a value of $775,000 for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":467277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4547,34,4548],"tags":[2975,2377,5904,662],"class_list":["post-471795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islanders","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-david-rittich","tag-ethan-bear","tag-new-york-islanders-news","tag-nhl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471807,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471795\/revisions\/471807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}