Ilya Sorokin is hopeful he will be ready to play by the New York Islanders‘ season opener.
The goaltender practised Thursday for the first time since having back surgery in the off-season and told the media he is “going to do everything to be ready for opening night.”
The Islanders open the regular season with a game against the Utah Hockey Club at UBS Arena on Oct. 10.
Sorokin, 29, missed the first week of training camp as he continued to recover but was a full participant at his first practice back.
According to Sorokin, he will be leaving it up to Islanders head coach Patrick Roy to determine a timeline for his return.
“Great job by (the training) staff the last two months, so I feel good, mental and physical,” Sorokin said. “I’m going to do everything to be ready for opening night, but it’s Roy’s business. My business is to do all things with my body and my head.”
Sorokin suffered the back injury during off-season workouts. Roy stated that he plans on taking things day by day with the netminder.
“We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so I rather keep it day by day and see how he is,” Roy said. “We’re going to give him his time, no doubt about it. He looked really good, and he seemed to feel pretty comfortable. I am very happy to see him on the ice.”
Sorokin is set to begin the first year of an eight-year, $66 million contract he signed with New York on July 1, 2023.
The Russian played in 56 games last season, recording a career-low 3.01 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage and two shutouts.
Sorokin lost the starting job to Semyon Varlamov leading up to and during the playoffs. He started just one game in the Islanders’ first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, getting pulled in a 3-2 loss in Game 3 after allowing three goals on 14 shots. The Islanders were eventually eliminated in Game 5.
The previous season, Sorokin was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy with a 2.34 goals-against average, a .924 save percentage and a league-leading six shutouts in 62 games.
“Everybody wants to be better,” Sorokin added Thursday. “If we do not want to be better, we can’t be professional players, so past season is in the past, and I just try to focus on small details of our game. And if you do right small details, it’s going to become part of your game.”