Elliotte Friedman speculates that NY Islanders G Ilya Sorokin is battling something

When you discuss keys to this season for the New York Islanders, at the top of the list is a bounce-back season for franchise goaltender Ilya Sorokin. The 29-year-old had a down season (for him) after finishing as the Vezina Trophy runner-up and was supplanted by Semyon Varlamov as the team's No. 1 goaltender during the playoff push to close the season. Varlamov started Games 1 and 2 of the postseason series with the Carolina Hurricanes before Sorokin started Game 3 at UBS Arena. As we recall, Sorokin was shaky and was pulled by head coach Patrick Roy, leading to a memorable image of him watching the remainder of the period from the hallway leading to the dressing room.

Now, there is potentially another reason to be concerned. SportsNet's Elliotte Friedman speculated on his most recent 32 Thoughts podcast with new co-host Kyle Bukauskas that Sorokin has been 'batting something' that the player and team are keeping under wraps heading into training camp.

"One thing I am kinda wondering about here and, obviously, it's tough to tell in the off-season, we'll see, but I think Sorokin's been battling something," said Friedman. "The Islanders are obviously very private; [Lou] Lamoriello is obviously very private. I heard that Sorokin is battling something, I don't know how serious it is or isn't, the agent won't say anything out of respect for Lamoriello. I sent a note to the Islanders, but they won't say anything."

The 'something' could be anything, but if it is injury-related, you now wonder whether that will impact Sorokin's availability at the start of training camp. As much as the Islanders and Lamoriello desire to keep these types of things internal, more times than not, we do learn whether the specifics around a player's injury are on the team's timetable, not on the media's. Fans on social media also noted that Sorokin was scheduled to appear at August's Fanatics Fest in New York City but abruptly canceled.

It's also worth noting that the Islanders did sign veteran goaltender Marcus Hogberg to a two-year contract in May. While organizational depth was needed heading into the off-season, it's possible the push to add a goaltender with NHL experience this off-season was, in part, driven by Sorokin's status this off-season. Now, we wait to see what's true and what's not.