Like most people who buy insurance, the Islanders hoped they wouldn’t need it.
But as Marcus Hogberg, the likely No. 3 goalie for the organization this season, made his preseason debut for the club Sunday, the stakes were a little higher than anyone would have liked — a function of Ilya Sorokin’s offseason back surgery that has so far kept him out of training camp.
While general manager Lou Lamoriello has said Sorokin isn’t expected to miss time at the start of the season, question marks around the star netminder’s health will be there until they are answered via his presence on the ice.
Ergo, Hogberg’s solid 15 of 17 performance through the first half of Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Devils was a bit more noteworthy than anyone would have figured a few months ago.
“Overall pretty good game and of course I can do better,” Hogberg said. “I wasn’t square enough to make the save on [Jesper] Bratt, the second goal there. Five-hole.”
Still, through a few hairy stretches early in the game as the Islanders struggled in the defensive zone, Hogberg stood up to pressure well.
Jakub Skarek, who replaced him for the game’s second half, stopped all eight shots he saw.
“They were both very good,” coach Patrick Roy said. “We had a couple moments in the first, I thought we gave up too many scoring chances, so Hogberg played really well, kept the game at 1-0 [after New Jersey scored first]. He was good on those rebounds, kept the puck close to him. Skarek came in, I thought he did well, as well.”
Hogberg, a 29-year-old Swede, spent the last three seasons with Linkoping HC in the Swedish League and compiled a .914 save percentage in 2023-24.
That came after spending 2017-21 with Ottawa, where he often shuttled between the NHL squad and AHL Belleville, never putting up a better save percentage than .904 with the Senators, which he did in 2019-20.
For the Islanders, who have avoided playing their No. 3 netminders to the point of overworking others when an injury has happened over the past couple seasons, the introduction of a trustworthy third goaltender was high on the offseason to-do list.
The importance of that was only amplified by the news around Sorokin.
Hogberg still needs to beat out a group that includes Skarek, Henrik Tikkanen and PTO signee Keith Kinkaid in camp to solidify himself as the third guy on the depth chart, but stands as the favorite amongst that group.
The Islanders rolled out a squad composed largely of NHLers for their first preseason game.
Brock Nelson centered a top line with Simon Holmstrom and Kyle Palmieri on either side.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau skated between Anders Lee and Oliver Wahlstrom while Kyle MacLean was with Maxim Tsyplakov and Julien Gauthier.
