A short term plan for Shesterkin & trade rumors

The three goalie system

It’s kind of painful watching David Quinn field questions about the goaltending situation. It’s a favorite topic of conversation and he is obviously unhappy about it.  Here were his comments after practice on Friday.

When asked about Shesterkin, he was very positive.   “Obviously, I didn’t have a chance to watch him (in Hartford), but I knew what kind of talent he had. I think he’s done a really good job. He’s square  to pucks, he’s athletic, absorbs pucks, great glove and obviously his puck handling ability is unique. He was a big factor in the two wins.”

But Shesterkin’s presence is not making it easy. “There are  a lot of difficult decisions, obviously this one is unique, so we’ve got three really good goalies…it’s a better problem to have than no good goalies.”

He was asked when Georgiev would get to play and after saying that they would like to get him into some games, he was asked how.   “We’ve got 38 more games so he’ll be playing. The question is which ones. I’m not being evasive, we’re just going day by day for now. “

Finally, the conversation circled around to Henrik Lundqvist.

Quinn said “He’s fine physically and he understands the situation, we talked a few days ago.  We all talked about the fact that he’s comfortable playing  a lot of games but now in the situation, there isn’t a goalie in the league that plays 65 or 70 games anymore, the whole league has  changed and we’ve got guys looking fore confident as well, he’s one of them that’s for sure.”

He specifically addressed the upcoming start in St. Louis.  “Obviously there’s a lot that goes into these decisions when you have three goalies…you know he’s played really well against St. louis and we want to get him back into the nets.”

This situation is really a coach’s nightmare. A future Hall of Fame player and two up and coming young talents and the resulting juggling act he is forced into.  When Quinn says that there are no goalies playing 65-70 games anymore, he is right, but at the same time, there are no first string goalies playing once every three games.

For Lundqvist in particular, a player who thrives on a heavy workload, this has to be challenging, a fact that Quinn is very aware of.

With the discomfort that this is causing, the Rangers’ desire to resolve it quickly is obvious.  At the same time, they want to get the return that they feel Georgiev is worth.

It’s interesting that Friedman’s three teams include the Senators, who are out of playoff contention as well as the Sharks who are on the brink of dropping out.  Toronto is the only  team that would use Georgiev as a back up while the other two teams would see him as their future number one.  It raises some intriguing questions moving forward.