New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin hit a milestone on Friday night as he played in his 50th career NHL game. The 26-year old sophomore goaltender has shown up more times than not for the New York Islanders over his short tenure and has cemented himself as the future no. 1 nemtinder for the franchise, if not the no. 1 netminder already in year two.
Through 50 regular-season games, Ilya Sorokin is 27-15-8 record, with a 2.28 GAA, a .921 SV% with seven shutouts, and has proven his value to the franchise.
Since Sorokin’s NHL debut back on Jan. 16 2021, his save percentage ranks sixth, his GAA ranks seventh and his 18.07 GSAA ranks eighth amongst the 54 netminders who have played in 25 games (1500 minutes).
After falling flat on his face to start his career, the former KHL superstar slowly but surely got acclimated to the NHL game and it wasn’t before long that he started to show the domination that the Islanders faithful had been waiting for.
Sorokin never played a game in the AHL before making his NHL debut. During the playoff bubble of 2020, the Russian netminder joined Semyon Varlamov and Thomas Greiss at practices, his first taste of the NHL game.
Although the play of Semyon Varlamov in 2020-21 was the storyline, the rookie played to a .918 SV% with a 2.17 GAA with three shutouts in 22 starts. And when the playoffs began against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sorokin was called upon by head coach Barry Trotz, with Varlamov dealing with a lower-body injury sustained in the final regular-season game against the New Jersey Devils.
Sorokin stopped 39 of 42 in Game 1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, and after Varlamov played Game 2 and Game 3, Sorokin finished off the series with three straight wins with a .952 SV% and a 1.80 GAA.
After Sorokin dropped the first game to the Boston Bruins (stopped 35 of 39), he did not play again until June 15, in which he relieved Varlamov, who allowed four goals on 27 shots in a pivotal Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning . Sorokin stopped all six shots he faced in that contest.
In the bloodbath of Game 6, Sorokin again relieved Varlamov who allowed three goals on 18 shots. Sorokin was tasked with taking one for the team, as the Islanders were terrible in front of him and the goals piled up. Sorokin stopped 21 of 26 to cap off his last game of the playoffs.
He would watch Varlamov and the rest of his team lose 1-0 in Game 7.
Sorokin’s sophomore season has not been as easygoing as his rookie campaign, with new shooters given the “normal” schedule. The defense he has played behind has not played to the shutdown level we saw a year ago and some of the finer details in Sorokin’s game that were masked by the defense have come to the forefront here in 2021.
Despite all that, Sorokin is 14-9-5, with a 2.37 GAA, a .924 SV%, and four shutouts.
Amongst the 37 goaltenders who have played over 1,000 minutes this season, Sorokin ranks sixth in SV%, sixth in GAA, and eighth with a 12.02 GSAA.
Ilya Sorokin may not be the best statistical goaltender in the NHL but his skillset is second to none. Like New York Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin, their ability to not just anticipate at a significantly faster rate than most, but slide over to get in the right position is just elite.
The flexibility that Sorokin has displayed and the brilliancy at times show how bright the future is for New York.
Now, what has plagued Sorokin this season has been the weaker goals. It seems that at least once a game there’s a goal that goes in that Sorokin should have stopped or had the ability to stop. The losses, when they have come, can not be on his shoulders but with the lackluster offense, each goal against is costly.
The weak goals come from being out of position, but also from thinking about the next save or next play before making the first one. That is a downside to his game, the part of his game that will get better the more he plays.
Sorokin is far from being a perfect netminder, but with just 50 games under his belt, there is plenty of time for Sorokin to work out the little issues.
Trotz said last season that 100 games is the sample size to know the capability of an NHL netminder, but from what we have seen so far, the sky is the limit for Ilya Sorokin.
