Ilya Sorokin has been worth the wait for the New York Islanders.
The goalie was selected in the third round (No. 78) of the 2014 NHL Draft. He helped the Olympic Athletes from Russia win gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and won the 2019 Gagarin Cup with CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League by going 16-4 with a 1.19 goals-against average, .947 save percentage and five shutouts in 20 playoff games. He was selected to the KHL All-Star Game five straight seasons (2015-16 to 2019-20), and in 2015-16 was named the best goaltender in the KHL after he led the league with a 1.06 GAA in 28 games.
Ilya Sorokin has been worth the wait for the New York Islanders.
The goalie was selected in the third round (No. 78) of the 2014 NHL Draft. He helped the Olympic Athletes from Russia win gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and won the 2019 Gagarin Cup with CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League by going 16-4 with a 1.19 goals-against average, .947 save percentage and five shutouts in 20 playoff games. He was selected to the KHL All-Star Game five straight seasons (2015-16 to 2019-20), and in 2015-16 was named the best goaltender in the KHL after he led the league with a 1.06 GAA in 28 games.
The Islanders and Sorokin agreed to a one-year contract July 13, 2020. As a rookie in 2020-21, he went 13-6-3 with a 2.17 GAA, .918 save percentage and three shutouts in 22 games (21 starts) in the regular season, sharing time with Semyon Varlamov. He became the first Islanders goalie to win each of his first four Stanley Cup Playoff games with 34 saves in a 5-3 series-clinching victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round.
Sorokin has played for Russia at the IIHF World Championship four times (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), finishing third in the 2016, 2017 and 2019 tournaments. He also helped Russia finish second at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.
