3 reasons why Ilya Sorokin's long-term contract with the NY Islanders was a mistake

2. Comparable Results to other goaltenders

When the Islanders finished 8-0-1 down the stretch of last season, it was Semyon Varlamov, and not Sorokin, that Patrick Roy leaned on to get them there. Varlamov was the Game 1 starter in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Sorokin's only start in Game 3 ended abruptly, with him getting pulled and watching the rest of the period from the dressing room hallway.

That was followed by back surgery over the summer and missing training camp. Although he only missed a few games to start the season and had encouraging early results, he allowed 4+ goals 11 times in 31 appearances and has a save percentage of .900, the lowest mark of his career.

Defenders of Sorokin's play will point to the team's defensive structure, poor penalty kill, and workload with Varlamov on IR this season as reasons why his numbers have suffered. Those are all fair points, but you pay a goaltender top-tier money (Sorokin has the 5th-highest AAV in the league) to overcome or minimize the team's deficiencies elsewhere.

To an extent, Sorokin is supposed to be the great equalizer for this team, giving them a net advantage over other teams on most nights. However, he hasn't been that often enough. Take a look at this year's goaltending statistics, and you'll find names such as Logan Thompson, Anthony Stolarz
and Joey Daccord among the Top-10 in GAA - Sorokin is 30th. That's simply not good enough.

The bright spot has been Marcus Hogberg, who hasn't been in the NHL in over three years and is expected to make his third start in four nights against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at UBS Arena with the Islanders season on the brink. What does that tell you?

Since 2018-19, the Islanders have had goaltending success with Robin Lehner, Thomas Greiss, Varlamov and Sorokin. With the exception of 2022-23, when the team snuck into the playoffs, the team in front of the goaltender dictated success more than the goalie himself.