Islanders sign RFA goalie Ilya Sorokin to three year deal

We have signings to announce! After weeks of wondering and waiting, the New York Islanders have officially announced a number of signings. Including RFA goalie Ilya Sorokin.

And while usually, we have to wait for the details of any signings to come out, this time we didn’t have to wait long for the terms of Ilya Sorokin’s contract. Within minutes we knew for how long and for how much.

New York Islanders sign Ilya Sorokin

Immediately after the signing was announced by the Islanders, Dan Milstein (Sorokin’s agent) tweeted that the contract was for three years. Which is perhaps a little longer than some of us had anticipated.

And then, seemingly seconds later, Elliotte Friedman confirmed that that cap hit was for $4 million. Which was definitely more than any of us believed it would be. Not that that’s a bad thing.

The cap ht might be higher than anticipated but this is Lou Lamoriello, when he knows he’s got a good goalie he pays them. It’s clear Lou thinks Sorokin is the guy they thought he could be.

In 22 games last year the 26-year-old averaged a 0.918SV% and 2.17GAA in the regular season and a 0.922SV% and a 2.79GAA in the playoffs. It’s clear that Sorokin was the goalie the Islanders believed he would be when he arrived from Russia.

Now, what does that mean for Semyon Varlamov? With the Sorokin deal, the Islanders are committed to $9 million for their two goalies for the next two years. That’s a lot of money. This year it seems that the Isles will run both Varlamov and Sorokin in a 1A-1B tandem and perhaps next season when Varlamov’s salary drops to $4 million, he might be traded to another team.

But, that’s a conversation for another day. For now, the Islanders have made signings and they’ve retained all of their important pieces, including Ilya Soroking. (That’s not a typo I added that ‘g’ on purpose.)