This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ilya Sorokin
New York Islanders Goaltender
.9068 across 61 games on 1,695 shots faced, and 10 goals better than the chances behind a club that missed the playoffs.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | NYI | 22 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 46 | 2.17 | 3 | 563 | .918 |
| 2021-22 | NYI | 52 | 26 | 18 | 8 | 123 | 2.40 | 7 | 1643 | .925 |
| 2022-23 | NYI | 62 | 31 | 22 | 7 | 140 | 2.34 | 6 | 1838 | .924 |
| 2023-24 | NYI | 56 | 25 | 19 | 12 | 167 | 3.01 | 2 | 1821 | .908 |
| 2024-25 | NYI | 61 | 30 | 24 | 6 | 158 | 2.71 | 4 | 1695 | .907 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 253 | 125 | 89 | 36 | 634 | 2.58 | 22 | 7560 | .916 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 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
61 games, 30-24-6, a .9068 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average with 4 shutouts, on 1,695 shots faced — among the heaviest workloads in the league. The club’s goaltending came in 10 goals better than the chances faced, 9th in the league.
That is a good season rather than the great ones he has had, and it was posted behind a club that finished 19th at suppressing chances and 31st on the penalty kill.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 189 and the most technically complete goaltender in this chapter. He is square almost without exception, he judges his depth better than anybody in the league, and he does not travel further than the puck requires — the economy of movement is the signature and it is why he holds up across sixty starts.
The glove is excellent and the tracking through traffic is exceptional. The rebound control is the one ordinary part: pucks come off him into the slot more often than the rest of the game would suggest, and on a club conceding this many shorthanded chances that got punished.
The Mental Game
1,695 shots and the volume has never visibly touched him. He has faced more rubber than almost any goaltender in the league for four consecutive seasons and the save percentage has moved between .924 and .906 with no correlation to how much work arrived.
He is at his best when the game is worst — the long shorthanded sequences and the broken plays are where the saves come from, and the ordinary shot from the point is where the rebounds do.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick who spent seven seasons in the KHL, arrived at 25 as a fully finished goaltender, and has been a Vezina finalist since.
He is 30 and signed long-term, and 10 goals of surplus on a club with the 31st-ranked penalty kill is the reason the season was as close as it was. There is no argument on this page: he is the best player in this chapter and it is not particularly close.