Sorokin key to New York Islanders playoff success this upcoming season

If the New York Islanders want to see a deep playoff run this season, they'll need Ilya Sorokin to dominate in the goal crease.

In 2025-26, Sorokin impressed the voters ranking second in Vezina Trophy voting, and third in All-Star voting. Aside from his league-leading seven shutouts, he didn't have the best performances of his career. Sorokin posted a .906 save percentage and 2.68 goals-against average, eighth and ninth among goaltenders with over 40 games, respectively. Sorokin himself felt that he didn't deserve the Vezina nomination after the Islanders missed the playoffs.

While he and the Islanders will look to turn the 2026-27 season into a winning one, Sorokin will need to continue to hold down the crease.

Making a run against top scorers

Getting through the Eastern Conference to get to the finals will mean going up against some heavy hitters. The defending champions, the Carolina Hurricanes, had a +56 goal differential in the 2025-26 season. The Penguins and Flyers, who both made it out of the Metropolitan division, had +25 and +7 goal differentials. All of the Atlantic division playoff participants had positive goal differentials. Most intimidatingly, the top team in the Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche, had a +99 goal differential.

Going up against a team like the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Montréal Canadians will require good goaltending. Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov had 130 points in the 2025-26 regular season, while Montréal's Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki combined for 189 points last season.

During Sorokin's tenure, the Islanders have made the playoffs three times. Two of those seasons, Sorokin had a goals-against average that was 2.34 or lower. In all three, he had a save percentage of over 0.906. The majority of their playoff success has come from Sorokin posting a strong save percentage.

Sorokin is the starter

Sorokin will also have to put up strong numbers, as the team doesn't have much to fall back on if he gets hurt or has a bad season. Last year's backup goaltender, Semyon Varlamov, has been out with injury since undergoing double knee surgery. Even if he does come back healthy, Varlamov likely won't play more than 20 or 30 games next season. The 39-year-old hasn't played more than 30 games since the 2021-22 season.

The only other healthy goaltender in the Islanders' rotation is Vitek Vanecek, who came over as a free agent from the Utah Mammoth. He's unlikely to move into a starting role with the team, but between Varlamov and Vanecek, Sorokin can hopefully get enough rest to carry the team back to the playoffs.

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