Islanders ink Ilya Sorokin to eight-year extension, re-sign other veterans

On the first day of NHL free agency, the Islanders accomplished their main goal for 2023 while checking the biggest item for 2024 off the list. 

Goaltender Ilya Sorokin inked a mammoth eight-year extension, the team announced.

An industry source told The Post the deal carries an annual value of $8.25 million.

The deal will keep the Vezina Trophy finalist in net for the Islanders through 2031, the same period as Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat. 

“It’s obvious that you don’t want a player of this stature to go into the last year of his contract,” Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “I think it’s a lot of pressure on the player. I think it would be a lot of media pressure on what his thoughts are and so forth and if something isn’t going right, would that add pressure?

“So there’s a lot of intangibles and situations that, this takes away the mental aspect of it. So we’re extremely pleased.” 

Sorokin is now the fourth-highest paid goalie on the market, behind Andrei Vasilevskiy’s annual salary of $9.5 million with the Lightning, the Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million) and Carey Price, who makes $10.5 million with the Canadiens despite being on long-term injured reserve with no chance of returning. 

The deal also set the market for Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who will be up for an extension soon, with his contract expiring in 2025. 

Keeping Sorokin on Long Island and avoiding a scenario in which he went to market next summer with the salary cap increasing, was the biggest priority for the Islanders this offseason.

The Russian netminder made 60 starts last season with a .924 save percentage and league-leading six shutouts, and was easily the Islanders’ most valuable player. 

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Additionally, the Islanders brought back Scott Mayfield, Pierre Engvall and Semyon Varlamov.

Mayfield and Engvall signed deals for seven years each with reported average annual values of $3.5 million and $3 million, respectively, and Varlamov signed for four years for a reported $2.75 million annually. 

Lamoriello has historically made no secret of his belief that great teams are built from the back out. Now the Islanders have stability in goal for the foreseeable future and — by bringing back Mayfield with term — they have three defensemen under contract through 2030.

Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov are under team control through at least 2027, when they can become unrestricted free agents. 

Keeping Engvall, who was acquired at the trade deadline, also allows the second line, which for the back stretch of the season was the Islanders’ best, to stay together. 

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For a club that has made no secret of its desire for stability, Saturday projected nothing but that. 

The kicker, though, is that they may not be done.

Although the Islanders are likely out on free agency with just $1.08 million in projected cap space remaining after Saturday — little enough that some maneuvering could be required to re-sign both restricted free agent Oliver Wahlstrom and Zach Parise should he choose to return — Lamoriello sounded quite open to the idea of a trade. 

“I think that’s exactly what the next step would be,” he said. “We’ve signed, certainly, the free agents with the dollars that we had available and now to get better as everyone tries to do, it’ll be a hockey trade.” 

That came on the heels of noise connecting the Islanders to a deal for Senators winger Alex DeBrincat, namely from the Ottawa Sun.

Such a move for a player capable of regularly scoring 30 goals would be seismic, and likely would require shipping Jean-Gabriel Pageau, along with other assets, to Ottawa. 

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The Islanders have been down this road before with the likes of Artemi Panarin, Johnny Gaudreau and Nazem Kadri.

For that reason, as well as the constantly shifting rumors around DeBrincat, caution is warranted. 

But whether it’s him or someone else, it did not sound as if Lamoriello is done constructing his roster. 

“We will do everything we can to make any transactions we can to make us better,” he said.

“As we’ve always said it takes two, but we are certainly open to hockey trades.”