Should The Rangers Trade Alexandar Georgiev?
By Alex Csedrik
Pittsburgh Penguins and the St. Louis Blues
There’s no doubt whatsoever that Shesterkin will man the net for majority of the starts for the New York Rangers whenever hockey resumes. He’s the present and future. Expect him to get around 60 starts next year. The only question is who will back him up.
Georgiev has been an above-average backup goaltender since coming into the NHL, with a .913 save percentage in his career. This season’s league average save percentage is .910, the same as Georgiev’s 2019-2020 campaign.
On the other hand, Henrik Lundqvist’s save percentage this season is .905, below the league average. The King has seen better days, so surely it’s time to send him out to pasture. Right?
Not so fast.
The New York Rangers–while not exactly going all-in–didn’t sell at the trade deadline. Instead, they opted to go on a run. They took their shot to make the playoffs, ill advised or not. The point is, the Rangers’ brass believes this “build/rebuild” is ahead of schedule.
If that’s the case, next year’s goal has to be to make the playoffs. So obviously it stands to reason that Lundqvist should be the odd-man out because of dwindling numbers, right?
No.
A lot of New York Rangers fans are trying to have their cake and eat it too. They’ll extol the virtues of Chris Kreider and how his work ethic means so much for the kids, yet they’ll ignore his $6.5 million cap hit for the next six seasons for a 29-year-old power forward–a position in hockey that, like overweight power-hitting first basemen in baseball, doesn’t age well. They’ll argue how Jesper Fast has the intangibles that championship teams need, despite how Fast’s career year is 33 points and he’s somehow currently a second-line winger on this team. But when Lundqvist–one of the franchise’s greatest players ever–is mentioned, it’s only cold, hard logic and “trimming the fat” of his cap hit.
When the St. Louis Blues won the Cup last year thanks largely to Jordan Bennington’s torrid start to his career, Bennington shared the net with Jake Allen. When the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup in 2016, Matt Murray had shown the Penguins’ brass that he was ready to be the new starting goaltender instead of Marc-Andre Fleury. (Fleury missed the last part of the regular season with a concussion, but returned to serve as a backup in the second round series against the Washington Capitals.) For 2017’s Cup, Murray was the primary option again to man the crease for the Penguins, with Fleury again serving as a backup.
The point is, both young goaltenders had seasoned goalies to serve as mentors. Georgiev, on the other hand, has 77 games to his credit, and has only seen significant action the past two seasons.
Recently, Shesterkin gave an interview with a Russian news outlet. The reporter asked who his idol is. Shesterkin’s answer? Henrik Lundqvist.
So you mean to tell me that it won’t behoove the Rangers to keep a goaltender with a history of performing at the highest level throughout the playoffs, who’s won an Olympic gold medal, who’s been to the Stanley Cup finals, who’s been to the Eastern Conferences finals three times, and who has 128 career playoff games–51 more than Georgiev’s total NHL career output–to mentor our future star? The King teaching the Prince the ups and downs of a meaningful season is the best scenario for the New York Rangers next year, and the future.
Oh, and let’s not forget that you get to send off a living legend properly. (This can’t be discounted, but ultimately isn’t the biggest factor in why this is the right move.)