Top 3 Andrei Vasilevskiy replacements as Tampa Bay Lightning goalie ft. Jaroslav Halak

The Tampa Bay Lightning will go without starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for the first two months of the regular season.

The Lightning announced on Thursday afternoon that Andrei Vasilevskiy underwent a successful microdiscectomy this morning to address a lumbar disc herniation. It's expected he will miss 8-to-10 weeks, according to reports.

Vasilevskiy is one of the best goalies in the league, so he will be hard to replace, but here are three options:

#3. Jonas Johnsson/Matt Tomkins

The most logical way for the Lightning is to replace Vasilevskiy with either of the two goalies on the roster right now.

The Lightning went out and signed Jonas Johnsson to a two-year deal to be Vasilevskiy's backup. In his NHL career, Johnsson has played in just 35 games going 11-14-3 with a 3.32 GAA and a .887 SV%. However, he is massive at 6-foot-5, and Tampa Bay is banking on him to develop into a solid NHL goalie.

The backup will be Matt Tomkins who signed a two-year, two-way deal this summer with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tomkins has bounced around the AHL and Europe and was Team Canada's goalie for the 2022 Olympic Games. He has yet to play an NHL game though, so it will be a risk going with these two.

#2. Dan Vladar

The Calgary Flames have Jacob Markstrom, Dan Vladar and Dustin Wolf under contract. Perhaps Tampa Bay can pry Vladar away from Calgary in a trade to replace Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Vladar is under contract for two more years at $2.2 million, so Tampa Bay will need to make the salary work. Although Vasilevskiy will go on LTIR, the Lightning still needs to be salary cap compliant when he's back, so adding a goalie not making league minimum could be difficult.

In his NHL career, Vladar is 29-14-8 with a 2.85 GAA and a .899 SV%.

#1. Jaroslav Halak

The final goalie who would make sense is free agent Jaroslav Halak. With Halak still not signed, he likely would take a league minimum deal, which would allow the Tampa Bay Lightning to remain cap-compliant.

Halak would be a safety net to add alongside Johnsson as he has plenty of experience starting games. Halak has been a backup for the last several years, but he still has played effectively.

The Lightning should have confidence going to Halak every night until Andrei Vasilevskiy is back.