Igor Shesterkin will be the highest-pair goalie in the NHL when the 2025-26 season starts in October. He's also the biggest reason the New York Rangers are among three teams in the top tier of TSN's summertime goaltender rankings.
The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner is coming off the first "down" season of his career (27-29-5, 2.86 goals-against average, .905 save percentage). But he was still seventh (fifth among goaltenders who played at least 45 games) in MoneyPuck's rankings of goals saved above expected with 21.6. He was also durable, starting a career-high 61 of New York's 82 games.
Count TSN's Travis Yost among those who believe No. 31 is still an elite NHL goalie.
"Igor Shesterkin may be the best goaltender in the league outside of ( Winnipeg Jets goalie) Connor Hellebuyck ," Yost said of the 29-year-old, who became the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history after signing an eight-year, $92 million contract last December. The contract, which begins this season, carries an average annual value of $11.5 million.
Shesterkin, taken by the Rangers in the fourth round (No. 118) in the 2014 NHL Draft, is beginning his seventh NHL season – he didn't leave the KHL for North America until 2019. He was 10-2-0 in 2019-20, splitting time with Henrik Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev . Lundqvist retired after that season and Shesterkin has been the Rangers' No. 1 goalie ever since.
Yost did raise the question of whether 39-year-old Jonathan Quick "can hold up for 20 games in relief." Quick, a three-time Stanley Cup winner and the only U.S.-born goalie with 400 NHL wins, saw his play drop off last season ; he was 11-7-2 with a 3.17 GAA and .893 save percentage – all serious declines from his play in 2023-24 (18-6-2, 2.62 GAA, .911 save percentage). The Rangers need more from Quick to avoid wearing out Shesterkin.
Related: Alex Ovechkin's 6-year-old son scores 2 goals against Rangers' Igor Shesterkin in fun viral moment
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Shesterkin and the Rangers have some company in the top tier of TSN's goalie rankings – including their biggest rival. The New York Islanders , who rely on Ilya Sorokin every bit as much as the Rangers count on Shesterkin, and the Winnipeg Jets, with Hellebuyck – winner of the Vezina Trophy in each of the past two seasons – were the other teams ranked in Tier 1.
The Washington Capitals , Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils , who finished 1-2-3 in the Metropolitan Division last season, were among the nine teams in Tier 2. The Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers were part of Tier 3, while the team they defeated in the Final each of the past two seasons, the Edmonton Oilers , were in Tier 4.
The other three Metropolitan Division teams were among the four teams buried in the fifth and final tier. The Columbus Blue Jackets , who finished ahead of the Rangers but missed the playoffs, were in the bottom grouping along with the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins . Those three were joined by the Buffalo Sabres , who will be trying to end their NHL-record 14-season non-playoff streak this season.
Despite having 2021 Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and signing shutdown defender Vladislav Gavrikov — who they hope will give their star goaltender the kind of help he didn't get enough of last season — the Rangers landed in the murky middle of TSN's ranking of defensive depth charts in the NHL.
Cale Makar 's brilliance on defense has the Colorado Avalanche leading the five teams rated in Tier I among blueliners. The only Metro team to make the top group was the Hurricanes, who added K'Andre Miller in a July 1 trade with the Rangers to an already-solid corps.
The Capitals are in the second tier, and the Rangers, Blue Jackets, and Islanders are in Tier 3.
Gavrikov, who excelled with the Los Angeles Kings last season, is all but certain to start the season on the left side of the top pairing with Fox.
The Rangers are counting on his shutdown abilities to free up Fox's offensive game.
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"Gavrikov is a much different defender and will be entrusted to play credible off-puck hockey on the hip of Adam Fox," Yost explained. "Does Gavrikov's defensive prowess allow Fox to play aggressively in transition on the attack? That's certainly the hope."
The Rangers are praying that hope becomes a reality as they try to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
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