{"id":406484,"date":"2026-01-14T03:41:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T03:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/406484\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T03:41:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T03:41:31","slug":"ilya-sorokin-building-mvp-case-with-plenty-of-islanders-work-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/406484\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Sorokin building MVP case with plenty of Islanders work to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 A goaltender winning the Hart Trophy is an exceptionally rare thing, with Connor Hellebuyck breaking a 10-year drought at the position last season.<\/p>\n

So with Hellebuyck in the crease for the Jets on Tuesday against the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin, it seemed as good a time as any to ponder whether Sorokin \u2014 the current favorite for the Vezina Trophy \u2014 has any chance of making it a double and also winning the league MVP.<\/p>\n

To his teammates and head coach, the answer is that he certainly should.<\/p>\n

\"IlyaIlya Sorokin reaches for the puck during the Islanders\u2019 win over the Wild. Matt Blewett-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been one of our best players this year,<\/a>\u201d Emil Heineman said. \u201cHe\u2019s won a lot of games for us. So I think he should be up there for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me he\u2019s the best goalie in the NHL,\u201d Jean-Gabriel Pageau told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, but let\u2019s be real for a second. The Islanders aren\u2019t exactly objective about whether their teammates should win awards, understandably so. Is there a real case that Sorokin should be in the conversation for the Hart?<\/p>\n

Well that depends how you look at it. If you strictly interpret the criteria of \u201cplayer most valuable to his team,\u201d then yes, Sorokin is without a doubt the most valuable Islander<\/a>. Then again, if voters interpreted that strictly, every ballot would have the five best goaltenders on it, and that doesn\u2019t tend to happen.<\/p>\n

A year ago, when Hellebuyck beat out Edmonton\u2019s Leon Draisaitl, the Winnipeg netminder led the league in goals against average (2.00), wins (47) and Evolving Hockey\u2019s measure of goals saved above expected (49.48) while being second in save percentage (.925). Draisaitl finished with 106 points, which ranked third, while leading the league with 52 goals in 71 games played.<\/p>\n

\"NewGoalie Ilya Sorokin and Mathew Barzal defend against Ryan Hartman during the Islanders\u2019 win over the Wild. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sorokin, going into Tuesday night, wasn\u2019t leading the league in any of the same categories. His four shutouts were tied for the most in the league, but his case for the Hart would rest more on analytics and on a literal interpretation of how valuable he is for the Islanders.<\/p>\n

Mike Kelly, director of analytics and insights for SportLogiq, the platform used by most NHL teams (including the Islanders) tweeted Sunday that by his company\u2019s metrics, Sorokin leads the NHL in goals saved above expected and in goaltender steals \u2014 which is to say, games in which the goaltender \u201csteals\u201d a victory for his team \u2014 with nine. He\u2019s also third in SportLogiq\u2019s quality start metric. Evolving Hockey, which measures goals saved above expected differently from SportLogiq, has him behind Washington\u2019s Logan Thompson in the category.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all great, but most writers who vote for the Hart Trophy don\u2019t have access to SportLogiq, so making a case primarily on their stats is going to be a tough sell for that reason alone, unfair as it may be.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the matter of Nathan MacKinnon, the current frontrunner, who already has 81 points in just 45 games on an Avalanche team that\u2019s lost just four games in regulation. MacKinnon, the Hart winner in 2023-24, also leads the league in scoring with 36 goals and plus\/minus at an absurd plus-49.<\/p>\n

A good comparison for Sorokin\u2019s case right now would actually be his own 2022-23 season, when he single-handedly willed the Islanders into the playoffs and finished with 51.36 goals saved above expected, the second-highest total ever tracked by Evolving Hockey. That year, Sorokin finished second in Vezina Trophy voting \u2014 a swing and a miss by voters \u2014 and ninth for the Hart.<\/p>\n

The Islanders are a much better team this year, which should help Sorokin\u2019s visibility come awards season, but at least right now, it seems unlikely he\u2019ll break into the conversation for league MVP. Of course, there\u2019s plenty of time for that to change, and the Islanders would understandably note that they wouldn\u2019t be where they are without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has an impact every night he\u2019s in the net for us,\u201d Pageau said. \u201cHe gives us a chance to win, or he wins the game himself sometimes. He\u2019s our best player most of the nights. I would for sure consider him in the Hart race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG, Manitoba \u2014 A goaltender winning the Hart Trophy is an exceptionally rare thing, with Connor Hellebuyck breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,277,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-406484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-ilya-sorokin","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115891384417958259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}