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New York Rangers’ top five undrafted players of the Lundqvist Era

By Karly Redpath

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 22: Mats Zuccarello #36 of the New York Rangers skates the puck against Phillip Danault #24 of the Montreal Canadiens during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on February 22, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 22: Mats Zuccarello #36 of the New York Rangers skates the puck against Phillip Danault #24 of the Montreal Canadiens during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on February 22, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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NEWARK, NJ – APRIL 07: Cam Talbot #33 of the New York Rangers makes a glove save against the New Jersey Devils during the game at the Prudential Center on April 7, 2015 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ – APRIL 07: Cam Talbot #33 of the New York Rangers makes a glove save against the New Jersey Devils during the game at the Prudential Center on April 7, 2015 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images) /

4. Cam Talbot

The Rangers signed Cam Talbot as a free agent in 2010, when he was playing for the  University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Talbot would serve as the Rangers backup goaltender in some of the Rangers most important seasons, as a part of the team that made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2013-14 season and claimed the President’s Trophy in 2014-15.

With Lundqvist seeing ups and downs early in 2013-14, Talbot would appear in 19 games, and helped to anchor the team and get them on the right track. In these 19 games, Talbot went 12-6-1 with a 1.64 goals against average and a .941 save percentage.

He also appeared in two playoff games during the Rangers’ deep run and stopped 11 of 13 shots he faced.

Talbot would play one more season for the Rangers before getting traded to the Edmonton Oilers. With Henrik Lundqvist having a rough start in 2014-15 and then suffering a neck injury which forced him to miss 25 games, Rangers then-head coach Alain Vigneault opted for Talbot.

He appeared in 36 games during the regular season and went 21-9-4. The team would go on to reach the 100-point mark for the eighth time in franchise history, and broke a franchise record finishing the season with 53 regular season wins and 113 total points.

Talbot had a big hand in this success.

Despite the slight drop off he has seen since joining the Oilers, there are plenty of factors at play to cause that. During his time in New York, he showed other teams in the league that he was a goaltender that could handle a full-time role.

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