Rangers sign Igor Shesterkin for 4 years, $22.7 million

The New York Rangers checked an important item off their to-do list by signing goalie Igor Shesterkin to a four-year, $22.7 million contract.  Shesterkin was a Restricted Free Agent (RFA) who had not filed for arbitration though he was eligible.  With Shesterkin inked, the Rangers are almost done when it comes to getting all of their players under contact.

Shesterkin is 25 years old, meaning that he will be under contract until he is 29 in 2025.   He signed for an Average Annual Value of just under $5.7 million, making him the 12th highest paid netminder in the league.

Only Thatcher Demko is among goalies that age making anything close to Shesterkin’s salary. He is making more than Semyon Varlamov, Robin Lehner and Linus Ullmark and a little less than Phillip Grubauer and Jonathan Quick.

It’s a sizeable investment in the goalie that the Rangers believe will be one of the elite netminders in the NHL.  He has played only 47 NHL games with a 26-16-3 record with a .921 Save Percentage (Sv%) and a Goals Against Average (GAA) of 2.59.

He hasn’t been able to avoid injuries,missing 10 games last season with a groin injury and nine games in 2019-20 with broken ribs and an ankle injury. He also missed the first two games of the Stanley Cup Qualifier with a groin injury.

That means he has missed 21 out of 89 games he could have played. His durability will be something worth watching.

When he played, he was outstanding.  Among goalies who played 1,500 minutes last season he was seventh best with a .916 Sv% and he had the second best high danger save percentage of .854%, only behind Philipp Grubauer at .859%.

At even strength he was even better with a .925% Sv%, fifth best in the NHL and the best high danger save percentage at .879%.   His goals against average of  2.34 was eight best in the NHL.

At four years term, this could be seen as a longer bridge deal and if he plays as well as he is projected to, the Rangers will have a tough negotiation in 2025, hopefully when there may start to be some movement in the salary cap ceiling.

Although the sample size is small, the Rangers believe that Shesterkin is the their future in goal and they proved it by making this investment.

With this signing the team just has RFA Libor Hajek to get under contract and they still have $8,821,031 in cap space left.  18 teams have less cap space and 13 teams have more, but of those 13 there are several who still have players to sign.  It means that unless other moves are in the offing, the Rangers will go into the season with more cap flexibility than most other teams.