Rangers veteran backup Jonathan Quick will return for his 19th NHL season in 2025-26. The team announced they’ve agreed to terms on a one-year extension, which Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports is worth $1.55MM. Per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, that will be paid out via a $1MM base salary and $550K signing bonus. Quick can also earn up to $300K in performance bonuses as part of his 35+ contract and has a modified no-trade clause. His performance bonuses break down as follows:
20 starts with .915+ SV%: $75K
35 GP: $25K
40 GP: $50K
20 Ws: $50K
25 Ws: $100K
The 39-year-old netminder is in his second season in Manhattan as the No. 2 to Igor Shesterkin, posting a .896 SV%, 3.14 GAA and three shutouts in 17 starts and four relief appearances this year. He was extremely hot to start the campaign, going 5-1-0 with a .936 SV% in seven appearances in October and November, but has a .874 SV% and 4-5-2 record in his last 14. He’s started two of 10 games coming out of the 4 Nations break, a light workload he should be expected to replicate down the stretch with the Rangers in a battle for their playoff lives.
Quick’s career résumé needs no introduction. The three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Kings and Golden Knights ranks 14th all-time with 402 wins, a figure that leads American-born netminders. He also has 63 career shutouts, outpacing No. 2 Ryan Miller by 19 for first all-time among Americans. He’s never won a Vezina Trophy, but was the runner-up in 2012 and a finalist in 2016.
But on the whole, Quick hasn’t been nearly as valuable to the Rangers as last year. A UFA pickup in the 2023 offseason, Quick was one of the league’s better backups in 2023-24 with a .911 SV%, 2.62 GAA, and an 18-6-2 record in 27 showings. That showing was good for 9.8 goals saved above expected behind an average Rangers defense, per MoneyPuck, a figure that’s dipped to -2.6 this year. They could do far worse for a limited-use backup, though, and those year-to-year swings have become commonplace for Quick in the twilight of his career. He hasn’t posted a save percentage north of .900 in back-to-back years since doing so in 10 consecutive seasons to begin his career.
Quick was set to be a UFA this summer after signing a similarly-structured extension last March. This deal carries a higher salary guarantee and total earning potential than his current deal, which afforded him $1.275MM in salary and signing bonus with just one $25K performance bonus, which he won’t earn as it required him to make 20 starts with a SV% of at least .915.
If he declines further next year, pending RFA Dylan Garand would be his replacement on the roster pending any external additions. The 22-year-old has been called up on a few occasions from AHL Hartford over the past few years to back up either Shesterkin or Quick when the other is unavailable but has yet to make his NHL debut. In 30 minor-league games this year, he has a .912 SV%, 2.79 GAA, three shutouts, and a 16-7-7 record.
Out of the 23 players currently on the Rangers’ active roster, 17 are now signed through next season at a combined cap hit of $84.89MM, per PuckPedia. That leaves the Rangers with $10.61MM in cap space to fill six roster spots, nearly all of which could be swallowed up by new deals for pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
So what’s the plan with Gaarand? Convince him to re-sign just to play in Hartford for a 3rd year?
Quick’s bonus Cup with VGK and quality play with NYR has moved him from not quite there to a HOF’er.
He deserves the HOF bid. Dude was a brick wall during the Kings run of cups
He also has a Conn Smythe and two Jennings Trophies, and if not for some good old fashioned east coast bias would have at least one Vezina.
If one could reasonably claim to be the best American-born goaltender of all time, they should be in the hall of fame.
I don’t personally disagree, but one of the other guys who can make that claim just got in recently after retiring decades ago (Barrasso) and another is still not in (Richter).
But, Pierre Turgeon is somehow there.
That cap is tight. Looks like the same team next year.
It’s possible that Drury makes some offseason trades, playing hardball (like he did with Goodrow and Trouba) to get around NTC/NMC contracts.
Good for Quicky!
Congrats JQ. King among Kings!
It’s nice to see goalies that were stars in their prime finish their careers as quality backups instead of flaming out. Goalies are so hard to project.
It feels more like the natural order of how things should be.