Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The start of the World Series combined with yesterday’s blockbuster trade got me thinking. For most of us, the closest we’ve come to watching Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider share New York’s baseball landscape is Ken Burns’s documentary Baseball. We’ve heard the stories, seen the highlights, and imagined the arguments over which team had the best center fielder.
Connor Hellebuyck’s arrival in New Jersey gives hockey fans a compelling reason to revisit that history.
The Devils have Hellebuyck. The Rangers have Igor Shesterkin. The Islanders have Ilya Sorokin. Three neighboring rivals, three extraordinary goaltenders, and one position where the region can make a remarkable claim to greatness.
They’re all in their prime. They’re all under contract.
This has all the potential to be something special and incredibly rare.
Three players.
One Positon.
Endless Debate.
The Numbers
Since the beginning of the 2020–21 season, Shesterkin owns a .916 save percentage, while Hellebuyck and Sorokin sit at .915. Among goaltenders with at least 150 appearances during that span, those figures put all three in a group tied for the NHL’s top four ranking positions. That is sustained excellence over several seasons, rather than three reputations inflated by geography.
Their individual peaks make the case even stronger.