The Islanders goaltender signed a long-term contract but was injured.
Rick DiPietro has heard it before.
“If old Rick could go back and talk to young, foolish Rick, he'd tell him to slow down and relax,” DiPietro told The Post by phone on Tuesday. “There'll still be games when he comes back.”
He was talking about Ilya Sorokin, who had back surgery this summer and is expected to return during training camp.
The details of Sorokin's surgery and the timing are unclear, but general manager Lou Lamoriello said Sorokin is skating under his own power and is not expected to miss any time in the regular season.
The Russian superstar is in the first year of an eight-year, $66 million contract he signed in July 2023, and the Islanders' fate will depend heavily on both his availability and level of play.
DiPietro, who signed a 15-year contract with the Isles in 2006 and had his career marred by a series of injuries, mainly to his knees and hips, probably understands that better than anyone else.
His advice: Don't rush it.
“This isn't a midseason game. We're trying to bounce back and get into the playoffs,” said DiPietro, who hosts the morning show with Dave Rosenberg on 98.7 ESPN Radio. “If I was giving him advice, I'd say give it 100 percent. [surgery] Once the season starts and you start putting in the effort, you'll feel great all season. So just get back to 100%, focus on your body, focus on strengthening all the muscles that are attached to the areas that you've trained, and if you take away all of the gym and physiotherapy, your goalkeeping coach will help you. [Sergei Naumovs] Now that I'm here, I'm doing a lot of work with him.
“And then all of a sudden, I went from watching the puck with my goalie coach and getting my timing right to incorporating more of the game element. The scrambles in front of the net were always the hardest part for me. All of that stuff was what took me the longest to get back into the game. You can try, but it's not the same. The amount of congestion, collisions, deflections, loose pucks and rebounds that you get in a game is hard to replicate in practice.”
The recent history of goalies and back surgery is complicated.
Former Stars and Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen underwent two surgeries after the first was unsuccessful and went on to play at a high level for nine seasons with Dallas before retiring in 2018.
More recently, Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilievskiy missed 10 weeks last season after a successful microdiscectomy and had a career-worst save percentage of .900 upon his return.
“I remember a couple of times I felt a little tight around my hips,” Lehtonen told the Post, “but after a few days it got better and I was able to carry on. And then my second season [surgery] I didn't have any problems anymore. I think it was mainly about strengthening the little muscles around the area that were immobilized by the surgery. In my case it was my lower back. So I worked on those little muscles around there. I think the amount of core training I did to stabilize my back helped me throughout my career.”
It's unclear how the Islanders will handle the early part of the season at goaltending, but considering how well Semyon Varlamov played late last season and in the playoffs, it wouldn't be surprising to see him take on more work than usual early on.
But in the long term, the team's fate rests on Sorokin, whose annual salary is currently fourth-highest among active goalkeepers.
“Beyond the pressure and answering questions from fans and the media,” DiPietro said of the added expectations that come with a contract like this. “For me, the pressure to perform for my teammates has always been paramount. Now with the opportunity to do radio and all that stuff, a common misconception is that athletes are just as critical of themselves as their fans are, or usually more so.
“When you're struggling, you know everybody's struggling. As a player, especially a player like Sorokin, you expect him to be one of the best goalies in the National Hockey League. He has a chance to be one of the best goalies in the National Hockey League. And when that doesn't happen, I'm sure he's frustrated. Now that he's signed a contract like this and is one of the centerpieces of the franchise, that frustration is even more intense.”
