Islanders Ilya Sorokin finishes outside of top 5 for Vezina

There was no doubt that New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin would win the 2022 Vezina trophy. It was all but guaranteed. And deservedly so. But for New York Islanders fans, the question was, where would Ilya Sorokin end up?

We knew Sorokin wasn't going to win the trophy or even finish in the top three. The NHL announced the finalists for the awards a few weeks ago. That was Shesterkin, Markstrom (Calgary), and Saros (Nashville).

New York Islanders Ilya Sorokin finishes outside of top 5 for Vezina

So once it was official that Shesterkin had in fact won the award, the vote share came out, and not only did Sorokin finish outside the top three, he didn't make the top five. Here's how the vote share broke down from all 32 NHL GMs:

The fact that Sorokin earned a first-place vote from a GM is quite impressive, but to get a single second-place vote and three third-place votes to earn him 11 points and finish sixth was ridiculous.

Remember, Sorokin finished* second at 0.925%, fourth in GAA, second in shutouts. And looking at advanced stats**, he's first in 5on5 goals saved above average, first in 5on5 HDSV%.

*For goalies who played at least 10 games. From NHL.com
**From NaturalStatTrick

But Sorokin is 17th for wins with 26. And that's the stat that sinks him lower down the list. It is absolutely ridiculous that team-level stat factors in an individual award. But look, I've been yelling that for a few years now and I'm certainly not the only one.

I'm not sure why GMs keep using that number to build the case for a winner but, again, that's been the case for a while now.

Good Things To Come

The fact that Sorokin was still this close to top goalie honors is a good sign of things to come for Sorokin and specifically the organization.

We all know the Islanders weren't particularly good this year. So it's not hard to imagine how good the Isles could be when Sorokin gets some support in front of him.