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Islanders 2026-27 Questions: Can Ilya Sorokin do it (and sustain it) again?
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- Islanders 2026-27 Questions: Can Ilya Sorokin do it (and sustain it) again?
He did everything he could. | Getty Images
The New York Islanders did not make the playoffs in 2025-26, but if they had, it would've been largely thanks to goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
As the Isles held a playoff position for several months — with a huge assist from Calder winner Matthew Schaefer, of course — this flawed team was enjoying a bounce-back, Vezina-contending year from Sorokin. By his own admission, and as observed by many, his play tapered off down the stretch as the Isles fell from contention.
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Blame the schedule, blame him running out of gas, blame backup David Rittich (now in New Jersey) also tailing off — whatever your scapegoat, Sorokin has a pattern of seasons with multiple shutouts (a career-high-tying and league-leading seven last season) while also being limited to about 55-60 games.
The 2025-26 season was a bit of a rebound year for him, undermined somewhat by his final quarter, which is a statement I copy and paste in every employee annual performance review. Sorokin did not reach the insane statistical peaks of his 2021-23 seasons (when his save percentage was in the .920s, his Goals Saved Above Average in the 30s), but he put on a show for most of the season at age 30.
It helped that Rittich put in an unexpectedly good turn as backup for the first half of the season. Now Sorokin is 31, he's backed up by Semyon Varlamov coming off double knee surgeries as well as Vitek Vanecek with his five consecutive seasons of sub-.900 save percentages. (As someone with strong Czech roots, I'm as wishful for the Havlickuv Brod native as the next pivo-drinking guy. Also as a Czech, I know to assume the worst because we can't have nice things other than good beer.)
It's quite possible — Bossy help us, make it so — that the Islanders overall defense will improve with the switch from Patrick Roy to Peter DeBoer, and Sorokin will face a much smaller nightly onslaught of high danger chances. So that may mitigate some of the burden on Sorokin, who hopefully never meets the bus DeBoer drove over Jake Oettinger .
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But with mostly the same roster returning, it sure looks like the Islanders will need Sorokin to put up another Vezina-caliber season backed up by an unexpectedly strong (and unlikely?) turn from one or both of the two guys who have health or history leaning against them.
Is that a bet you'd make?
