Ilya Sorokin

This Season So Far

The 2026-27 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

55 appearances, 29-24-2, a 2.68 goals-against average and a .9059 save percentage with 7 shutouts — the most in the league. His career figure across 308 games is .9144.

The Physical Game

6-3, 189, and technically about as sound as the position gets. He is square, quiet, and almost never out of position; the economy of movement is the thing that separates him from goaltenders with more visible athleticism.

Rebound control is excellent. Against a club that concedes the fifth-most expected goals in the league, that matters more than anything else on the page.

The Mental Game

55 appearances behind a defence that finished 28th in even-strength expected goals against and a penalty kill that finished dead last in the league. 7 shutouts out of that is a remarkable line.

Over his last 10 appearances, .868 on 235 shots, which is a bad fortnight rather than a trend.

The Intangibles

New York’s goaltending came in 20 goals better than the chances it faced — third best in the league, behind only Colorado and the Islanders’ own division rivals.

That is the whole club. It finished 28th in expected goals against and 32nd on the penalty kill, and still only conceded 241 goals, because Sorokin stopped things nobody had a right to expect.

He is 30 with a career .9144 across 300 games. On a roster that under-finished by 20 and could not kill a penalty, he is the reason there was a season at all.