Sorokin, meet Schwarzenegger.
“I’ll be back,” declared the netminder Friday after a season in which he looked very unlike the Terminator.
Ilya Sorokin’s drop from shutdown Vezina Trophy finalist to roughly league average to getting pulled after giving up three goals on 14 shots in his only playoff start is hard for anyone to explain, himself included.
Ilya Sorokin struggled more and more as the season moved on. Michelle Farsi/New York Post But as the long summer begins for the Islanders, the goal over the next four months is obvious for Sorokin: find his game again.
“I want to start skating Monday,” he said. “Of course, the season is very fresh in my mind.”
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Despite being Semyon Varlamov’s backup for the stretch run, Sorokin finished the regular season having faced more shots than any netminder except Nashville’s Juuse Saros, who played in eight more games than him.
That, on top of the 62 games Sorokin played in 2022-23, offers a potential explanation for why his game went haywire.
“I think it’s a lot of factors,” Sorokin said. “It was hard, parts of January, February, a lot of games. I think all goalies, it’s small details. You should control the details.”
Sorokin faced more shots than any netminder except Nashville’s Juuse Saros. NHLI via Getty Images Varlamov, who proved himself more-than-capable of handling a greater workload than he’s been given over the past couple seasons, offered a take that functioned as an indirect critique of Lane Lambert’s handling of the rotation in net.
“I know Ilya’s capable to play 60 [games], I know I’m capable to play 60 too,” he said. “But I think personally if you play your No. 1 goalie for 60, 65 games, I don’t think he’s going to be fresh moving forward and playing in the playoffs. If you want to go deep in the playoffs, you need to make sure your starter, No. 1 goalie, is feeling good and fresh.”
Regardless, he was confident that Sorokin would indeed be back come the fall.
“To me he’s in the top five goalies in the league, always,” Varlamov said. “And I’m sure he’ll continue to play great for this organization, for this team, and he just needed to reset mentally, get away from hockey, not to think about hockey. Make sure you have a good summer of training and then come back refreshed mentally and feeling good physically next season.”
Oliver Wahlstrom, a restricted free agent this summer, was noncommittal when asked whether he wanted to return to the Islanders after failing to stick in the lineup this season.
“We’ll see. It’s a decision with me and Lou [Lamoriello],” he said. “We’ve been talking a lot. He helps me a lot through the ups and downs. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Though Lamoriello was noncommittal on whether the assistant coaching staff would be back next season, he said he does expect director of goaltending Mitch Korn to return.
