Stud goalie Ilya Sorokin leaving KHL to finally join Islanders

[musky]

It’s looking like the Battle of New York will soon get a Russian twist.

It seems the Islanders will be getting long-awaited netminder Ilya Sorokin for the start of the 2020-21 season, as he reportedly chose not to re-sign with CSKA of the KHL and plans to sign his entry-level contract with the Islanders once his current deal expires April 30. Sorokin will then come to the Big Apple, where friend and current Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin burst onto the scene this season after leaving the KHL.

This is according to a report from Igor Eronko, who covers the KHL for Sport-Express. The Islanders had no immediate response to the news as the NHL remains in a “pause” due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Islanders team president Lou Lamoriello had previously said he expected Sorokin to be here for the 2020-21 season.

Part of that belief likely swayed Lamoriello to sign Semyon Varlamov last offseason to a bloated four-year, $20 million deal. Varlamov, 31, is a fellow Russian who is considered a role model for Sorokin (and Shesterkin), and has had an up-and-down first season with the Islanders.

But with goalie Thomas Greiss in the final year of his contract, there should be ample opportunity for Sorokin if he chooses to come over. It’s possible Lamoriello would sign another veteran to a short-term deal to take some pressure off Sorokin in his first year, much the way Shesterkin started his career with AHL Hartford before taking over as the Blueshirts’ presumptive No. 1 once he was called up in January.

The Islanders can only hope it works out that well, as Shesterkin won 10 of his first 12 NHL starts, with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage, before he fractured his rib in a car accident Feb. 24.

The Islanders took Sorokin in the third round (No. 78 overall) of the 2014 draft, and he was the playoffs MVP while leading his KHL team to the 2019 championship. Set to turn 25 years old on Aug. 4, Sorokin never had worse than a 1.61 goals-against average in a league that has very little competitive balance.

With the resumption of this season uncertain, it seems that the next time the Islanders take the ice, Sorokin could be in their net. The club is set to play all of next season at the Coliseum before moving into their new arena at Belmont Park for the 2021-22 season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=SjmMsH5f_G8&feature=emb_logo

[flyercanuck]

The Metro seems to have a monopoly on great young goalies. The Isles with Sorokin, Caps with Samsonov, Rangers have Shestyorkin, Devils and Blackwood, Nedeljkovic on the Canes, the Pens have Murray/Jarry and Philly has Hart. 

[Alexandron]

10 hours ago, flyercanuck said:

The Metro seems to have a monopoly on great young goalies. The Isles with Sorokin, Caps with Samsonov, Rangers have Shestyorkin, Devils and Blackwood, Nedeljkovic on the Canes, the Pens have Murray/Jarry and Philly has Hart. 

It seems the Metro does have a monopoly. 

[flyercanuck]

6 hours ago, Alexandron said:

It seems the Metro does have a monopoly. 

 

It does.

 

Hey, how're you feeling? Are you fully recovered or still on the rebound?

[Alexandron]

Thanks for asking, Flyercanuck. Tell you a truth, it took for me about 5 weeks to feel decently well after my viral infection started. Since yesterday, I practically do not have any symptoms any more. Before that,after the 1 week of acute faze, I had intermittent/jumping pain in my lower parts of my chest , heart, ears, fingers coming by waves, and rare occasional unpredictable weakness and sleepiness for about 4 weeks. Also thanks to Lynxrattle, when he provided with the information that even an easy forms of COVID-19 could give unpleasant reactions for a long period of time. Thus, I was prepared mentally to that scenario. Nice to have fans from different countries at our forums able to share with the info.

In my opinion, so far (maybe till June when viral infection usually transforms into a non virulent latent form), we should use everyone masks every time when we enter in stores.(Ideally, if stores will provide us at the entrance with the disposable masks and maybe a pair of simple latex gloves when customer does not have it just to prevent spreading that infection). l  made few of my own masks by using a sewing machine at home. Why do we need them to carry? Because during the regular flu we get anti-bodies in 2-3 days after the influenza infection, but during the COVID-19 we starting to get important anti-bodies in our serum, which are responsible for the humans immunity, usually in 2-5 weeks and sometimes we do not get them at all and be able to carry the virus for awhile .  Interesting, according to the new recent research, our medical industry will be able to make in the future serum testing for anti-bodies(Ig M and Ig G) to this virus, which is more informative than for the virus test itself. I heard that some countries, some clinics and our Mayo Clinic in Rochester started already this research, which shows that between 5-20% population have immunity and antibodies Ig G developed since the end of November - December of last year, when we had  cases of unusual viral infection sometimes complicated with a strange forms of difficult to treat pneumonia. Hope, these important tests we will be able to produce for the public as soon as possible to find out how our population is immune to that unpredictable virulent virus.  I still believe that this is an artificially made unknown virus, having unusual not common to many viral infections way of affection to humans and capable to resist as low as well as high temperatures.  Hard to believe, that it was developed naturally, when people ate bats for several 100 thousands years in that area.