Saturday: The Rangers officially announced that they’ve signed Shesterkin to an eight-year extension. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds that the deal contains a full no-move clause and $85MM of the contract will be paid in the form of signing bonuses.
Friday: The New York Rangers have used their new-found cap space relatively quickly. ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports the Rangers have signed goaltender Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year extension paying the netminder between $11.5MM and $12MM a year. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed it will be an eight-year, $92MM extension for Shesterkin.
Once the deal is finalized it will usurp Carey Price’s record-breaking eight-year, $84MM extension with the Montreal Canadiens by $8MM. Shesterkin and his camp have been adamant about setting the market for goaltenders and he appears to have done just that.
New York will get Shesterkin back on a cheaper deal than Price from a certain point of view. Price’s contract accounted for 13.2% of the cap when it took effect starting in the 2018-19 season. Shesterkin’s contract, assuming the reports are accurate on an $11.5MM salary, will only account for 12.4% of the cap should it rise to the reported $92.5MM for the 2025-26 season.
The Moscow, Russia native landed his desired salary despite having a depressed season compared to the rest of his career. He’s produced an 8-9-1 record in 18 starts for the Rangers with a .908 save percentage and a 3.05 goals-against average.
It’s difficult to disagree with the price point. He’s arguably been one of the league’s top netminders since the 2020-21 season and the Rangers are now rewarding him for his efforts. He took over as the Rangers starting goaltender in the 2021-22 season and the team has failed to miss the playoffs since.
His career records speak for themselves. Shesterkin boasts a career winning percentage of 63.2%, a .920 SV%, and a 2.48 GAA over 226 career starts. The only goalie to post even similar numbers to Shesterkin through their first six seasons is fellow top-netminder Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets. 
New York’s competitive window begins and ends between the pipes with Shesterkin. He’s produced tremendous value for the Rangers over the last six campaigns and will now continue to do so for the next eight beyond this season. The eight-year extension will take Shesterkin to the 2032-33 NHL season when he will be 38 years old.
If today is any indication, the Rangers will be a very active team up to the 2025 NHL trade deadline. General manager Chris Drury will likely pivot toward extending his young crop of expiring talent including Kaapo Kakko, K’Andre Miller, and William Cuylle over the next few weeks so the pieces are in place for the team’s future.
Still, Drury and the Rangers are focused on moving out high-priced veteran talent such as Chris Kreider to create serious change toward the top of the lineup. New York has failed to make it beyond the Eastern Conference Final since the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs despite consistently being one of the better teams throughout the regular season. Drury has been aggressive in his pursuit of re-tooling the roster and today’s moves may only be the beginning.
Photo courtesy of USA Sports images.
How do they do that? How do they keep dumping bad contracts and restrengthen?
Plus the guy gets paid $12.14M a year in signing bonuses and gets just $875K salary. That’s the best way to insure you get paid in the event of a lockout. You don’t get paid salary if you don’t work/play but if your deal says pay 12M July 1st every year then you still get paid
Well the dominoes keep on falling for the Rangers. By dumping Trouba’s $8 AAV contract to Anaheim, it opened cap space to seal up Shesterkin long-term which was the Rangers first priority.
There is more dominoes to fall I’m sure in the coming weeks for the Rangers.
Why would the Rangers extend Kakko? He and Chytil are not worth keeping.
Kakko needs more playing time per game and a center who can set him up. Chytil has been a solid 3rd line center and could play 2nd line on several teams right now, though he’s more goal oriented as opposed to setting up others.
No, indeed, no one can argue with the contract. Just like everyone thought that Gibson’s big deal was a great win for Anaheim, and Price’s big deal was a great win for Montreal, and Bobrovsky’s big deal was a great win for Florida. No goalie mid-career getting his max term/max money contract has ever flamed out.
Well, Bob got FLA a cup, so…. Yeah that’s a W contract
And cost the Panthers dearly for many years with crap play. And he hardly WON them a Cup. He just didn’t *lose* them the Cup.
Miller’s gotta be next out the door. Hopefully some GM can’t see what a useless Baby Huey he is on the ice.
Great contract for Igor. I didn’t know NHL contracts were that cheap compared to other major sports
Waaaaay too overpaid. This contract will hurt this team since day one.
He is top ten goalie OK but not the best Nhl goalie.
Has there ever been a contract that hasn’t caused you to scream that it is an overpayment?
Jack Hughes? Jesper Bratt?
Drury will not be around when this contract starts looking bad like I say in 2 years.
So Trouba was the sacrificial lamb to sign Shesterkin. Drury is putting all his eggs in one basket for a goalie who at times looks unbeatable. Then other times he looks like he couldn’t stop a basketball. He is IMO not as good as Lundquist, or Richter. I wonder after the big sell off this season is Laviolette going to want to coach what’s left?
Sell off? There’s zero reason for that to happen. I’d say Drury is doing a great job right now. He just got Anaheim to take Trouba’s contract.
We knew that it was going to be somebody. All things considered, losing Trouba for Shesty’s big contract is fine. Trouba never turned into the player he was touted to be when they scrambled to get him from Winnipeg and is too often a liability.
I agree with you regarding Shesty’s performance, totally inconsistent and not worth what he’s been demanding. This year’s numbers are garbage. Hopefully, this new contract will snap him out of his funk and he’ll start playing like a Vezina contender. If not, this contract will be yet another albatross hanging around the neck of this team.
Then why the big rush to trade Trouba? This new contract doesn’t start until next season.
You’re coming off a Presidents Trophy season and you’re already panicking about where you are in the standings? Drury is planning a sell off of his big contract players. Another typical Ranger GM who had zero experience but was put in a job that’s way over his head. Keep telling yourself Drury is doing a great job. And I’ll just remind you ONE Cup in 85 years. Enough said. The Rangers are and always will be a
Loser organization.
Trouba trade is addition by subtraction. Shesterkin will play better when Trouba isn’t chasing guys up to the blue line, leaving guys wide open in the slot. Trouba’s ex-partners will play better when they don’t have to worry about Trouba making a boneheaded play behind his own net or making a breakout pass directly onto the other team’s stick. Or Trouba pinching and getting caught behind the play because he’s a slug. I’m not saying Drury is great, but getting rid of Trouba wasn’t a sacrificial lamb situation — it was a getting rid of Trouba situation.
YES YES YES I LOVE HIM
no movement Rangers. Not true.
It would be nice if they played some defense in front of their goalies. The slug effort between a 3-1 lead and a 6-3 deficit today was an embarrassment.