The New York Rangers can thank Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick for keeping them in contention through what was a turbulent month of October. Overall, the Rangers have struggled to score, putting up just 28 goals this season, which ranks 26th in the league.
They can get shots off, but their shooting percentage at 5-on-5 is a meager 6.5, more than 2% lower than the league average of 8.6. Their power play has also felt the effects, and they're one of the worst in hockey, converting just 13.33 percent of their chances.
Nobody is going to win a lot of hockey games if they can't find the net consistently, unless they have a goaltending tandem capable of bailing them out. And besides a few bad outings because not everyone at the NHL level will play well 100 percent of the time, Shesterkin and Quick have been godsends.
New York Rangers can point to their goaltending tandem for keeping them relevant
The Rangers' 2025-26 season could easily be in disaster mode right now if it weren't for Shesterkin and Quick at least making things look respectable. They have only allowed 25 goals as a duo, with two shutouts, a 0.922 save percentage, a 2.08 GAA, and a 0.750 quality starts percentage.
Shesterkin has continued to show why he's worthy of snagging the Vezina Trophy, given his 0.916 save percentage, 2.32 GAA, one shutout, and 0.778 quality starts percentage through nine starts. Quick, despite playing in his age-40 season, is sporting a 0.941 save percentage, a 1.35 GAA, a shutout, and a 0.667 quality starts percentage through three games.
These are elite numbers, and if Shesterkin and Quick keep up this pace, then the Rangers only need to look halfway decent offensively. Ideally, they would bring in another offensive weapon as opposed to trading one of them, because this season isn't out of reach by any means with Shesterkin and Quick in the crease.
Rangers still need to figure out how to make things click offensively
It's not that the Rangers don't have talent, with Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafreniere, J.T. Miller, Adam Fox, and Mika Zibanejad. This is a talented core that, for one reason or another, hasn't meshed so far in 2025-26.
The Rangers aren't that far behind the top three contenders in the Metropolitan points-wise, so there's a lot of time to get this right. A best-case scenario would see Shesterkin and Quick keep up their game while New York's skaters rediscover some much-needed chemistry, and that could set the Blueshirts on an outstanding run as the second month of the season kicks off.
If that's the case, then the already competitive Metro Division just got tougher. And the last thing the Rangers' division rivals need is for a team that won the Presidents' Trophy two seasons ago to rekindle that fire.