Islanders goalie IIya Sorokin returns from injury for full practice

The day began with Ilya Sorokin rejoining the Islanders.

It ended with the possibility that Bo Horvat might not miss as much time as initially feared.

In between, coach Patrick Roy emphasized — first to his squad and then to a small group of reporters — that the team has played well for much of the first half of the 2025-26 season.

And so, in what was something of a State of the Islanders address, the Hall of Famer expressed contentedness.

“Very happy” was Roy’s analysis after a 50-minute practice Friday morning at UBS Arena ahead of Saturday’s home game against old friend John Tavares and the Maple Leafs. “I’m very pleased.”

The reinsertion of Sorokin into the team certainly did nothing to ruin Roy’s outlook. Sorokin, who was a full participant in practice, will back up David Rittich against Toronto before starting Tuesday night’s game against the Devils, according to Roy.

Sorokin, who is 12-10-2 with three shutouts, a .910 save percentage and a 2.55 goals-against average in 24 games this season, last played in the 4-1 loss to the Canucks on Dec. 19. The team announced before the 2-0 win over the Rangers on Dec. 27 that he had been placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 20.

“Any time you have a guy out with [an] injury and then you see him on the ice getting close to coming back, it’s obviously a positive,” Ryan Pulock said. “The caliber of goalie [Sorokin] is, obviously you love to see him back and getting close to playing.”

Whereas the Islanders (22-15-4, 48 points, second in the Metropolitan Division) are going to get back their franchise netminder, they won’t have Horvat’s services for at least this week after he appeared to injure his left leg in a collision with Utah Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi with 12 minutes left in Thursday afternoon’s 7-2 loss. He crawled to the bench before walking through the tunnel to the back and did not return.

When asked directly for an update on Horvat, Roy said, “He’s not going to play this week and we’ll re-evaluate him after the week.”

However, Pierre LeBrun, an NHL insider for TSN Sports and The Athletic, posted on X that it “sounds like Horvat’s injury isn’t too serious. Certainly not when it comes to Olympic implications.”

Horvat missed five games earlier in the season with a lower-body injury but still leads the Islanders in goals (21) and points (33). Without him, Roy tweaked the forward lines at practice. Mathew Barzal centered the top line with Anders Lee and Emil Heineman. That trio was followed by Max Shabanov, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Max Tsyplakov. The third line consisted of Jonathan Drouin and Simon Holmstrom skating alongside Cal Ritchie. Kyle MacLean, Casey Cizikas and Marc Gatcomb comprised the fourth line and Anthony Duclair was the extra.

What could be a cause for concern is the defense corps, as there were only six defensemen on the ice Friday. Laurel Hollow’s Marshall Warren was sent back to AHL Bridgeport before practice and Adam Boqvist was paired with Scott Mayfield on the third pair. Roy said he was unsure if Boqvist will dress for the game against the Leafs. If he does not dress and no one is called up from Bridgeport, the Islanders will have only five defensemen available.

Neither Heineman nor Holmstrom was selected to represent Sweden in the 2026 Winter Olympics.