Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov were among the best goaltending tandems in the league in 2021-22, with 52 games started by Sorokin and 29 by Varlamov. The team gave up the seventh-fewest goals in the league despite a myriad of injuries to the blue line and was the only reason the Islanders put together a run in the second half of the season. Last season was the first year in the Lou Lamoriello-Barry Trotz era that there was a clear number-one goalie and after just a handful of games under Lane Lambert, it appears it will be the same this year.
Trusting in Ilya Sorokin
Last season, Sorokin played the 16th most games of all goaltenders in the league, directly in the middle of the old-fashioned number ones like Juuse Saros and Connor Hellebuyck and the true 1A/1B situations like former Washington Capitals goaltenders Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek. While that set-up worked for the Islanders in Sorokin’s first full season in North America, it is now time to let him take the reigns and join that upper echelon of goalies.
Varlamov will be 35 years old at the end of the season and his $5 million contract will be off the books. The writing is on the wall that this will be his final year on the Island. The team has already used that money to re-sign Mathew Barzal and now they are relying on Sorokin to play a heavy majority of the games this season. Early in this year, the new coaching staff is preparing Sorokin to be the number one goalie with no question next season. By building up his stamina in 2022-23, the franchise is preparing to make a significant downgrade at backup goalie in 2023-24.
Is Sorokin Ready?
The answer to this question will determine the Islanders’ moves in the offseason between the pipes. Is Sorokin ready to play 65 games in an NHL season? If he shows this year that he is not, maybe Varlamov will be back or they go out and sign a cheaper, proven backup like Cam Talbot or Antti Raanta. Last year, Sorokin put up a Vezina-caliber season, and the predictions from pundits across the hockey world have him in the same conversation this year.
The transition from European ice to American ice can be difficult, especially for goaltenders. Sorokin struggled in his first few regular season games in 2020-21, adjusting to the smaller ice and shots coming from different angles. Igor Shesterkin spent a little bit of time with the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Hartford Wolfpack before becoming a star on the big club across town. It is not out of the question that Sorokin could struggle because of these variables but what he has put forth so far is a resume of a star goalie in the making.
Who Will Pick Up the Backup Role?
Assuming Sorokin shines again and his body holds up through a 60-plus game workload in 2022-23, the Islanders will move on to another backup goaltender who is less expensive against the cap. They have a few options within the system already with Cory Schneider and Jakub Skarek. Schneider played one game – back in his old stomping ground against the New Jersey Devils – last season and shined, getting his first NHL victory in almost two years. Schneider fits the bill of an NHL backup in the cap era; affordable and reliable. He has a $750,000 cap hit for this season and will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) come July. Assuming he signs for the same number, the veteran’s minimum, it would be a massive relief to the Islanders’ cap sheet if he was able to put together some nice starts. He won 14 of his 30 starts in the AHL last season and is off to a 3-0 start early on in 2022-23.
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Schneider’s goaltending partner down in Bridgeport is 22-year-old Czech goalie Skarek. He was a third-round pick in the 2018 Draft who has continued to grow since his draft day. Skarek has one more year left on his entry-level deal after this season at $764,000, so he provides another inexpensive, in-house option for a backup goalie. He struggled last season with a 3.30 goals-against average (GAA) and a save percentage (SV%) under .900 but has started the 2022-23 season off quite well. He is 1-1 with a 2.57 GAA through his first two starts, picking up the win at home against the Laval Rocket last weekend.
Either in-house option is better than the free agency options that will be available in July. Whether it be Varlamov, Anton Khudobin, Talbot, or Jonathan Bernier, there are a lot of older options that create higher injury risk. While Schneider is also on the older side, his low cost makes the risk easier to swallow.
Trading Varlamov
After showing their hand in the first few games of the season that Varlamov would be a true second fiddle on this team, his potential trade value has plummeted. Without showing he can be an every-night goalie, it will be hard for the Islanders to convince another team he actually is. Despite that, injuries between the pipes can make a team desperate. If teams with younger backups, like the Edmonton Oilers or Calgary Flames, have injuries to their starters at any point they could be calling the Islanders.
Many believed that Varlamov should have been traded at last year’s deadline given how capable Sorokin was of taking the lead down the stretch. The best-case scenario this year is that he does that again this year and Varlamov is part of a cap-clearing deal to land an offensive piece.
It is quite rare that the Islanders are seen as having one of the best position groups in the league, but that could be changing after this season with the impending end of Varlamov’s contract. All of the options at backup goaltender show that the Islanders are set up between the pipes behind Sorokin for the foreseeable future.