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Igor Shesterkin

Jaroslav Halak, Louis Domingue Sign With New York Rangers

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The New York Rangers have found their backup. The Athletic’s Arthur Staple reports the team has signed veteran Jaroslav Halak to serve as the backup to Igor Shesterkin. According to CapFriendly, the deal is worth $1.55MM, which includes a $1.25MM base, a $250K signing bonus, and $50K in performance bonuses for wins and save-percentage (link). The deal also carries a full no-movement clause.

The team also announced the acquisition of Louis Domingue to be their third-string netminder on a two-year contract. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports it’s a $775,000 cap hit for Domingue, with him earning $750,000 in 2022-23 and $800,000 in 2023-24.

The two deals reinforce the importance of goaltending depth and its place in this year’s offseason market. Halak would represent one of the league’s best true backup goaltenders and Domingue one of the league’s best third-string goaltenders, which is great for the Rangers, but more interesting considering the starter is current Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. Despite having one of the best goaltenders in the world, the Rangers have committed $2.32MM to their goaltending today, while fighting the salary cap, and one might still consider these to be under-the-radar compared to other goaltender deals this offseason.

Halak will be returning to New York, where he spent four seasons as a member of the New York Islanders, this time playing for the bitter crosstown rivals. The 37-year-old spent this past season as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, suiting up for 17 games where he posted a .903 save-percentage and 2.94 goals-against average.

Domingue is an interesting addition for the Rangers, the goaltender nearly eliminating the team himself back in the first round of this year’s playoffs. Having played just two regular seasons games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Domingue suited up for six playoffs games following injuries to Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, winning three of them, with the team ultimately losing in seven games to New York after Jarry returned for game seven. Now, the Rangers will have a chance to experience having Domingue on their side of the ice.

Award Notes: Jim Gregory Award Finalists, All-Rookie Team, All-Star Teams

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While there were five awards handed out on Tuesday, there is still one more to be announced.  That one is the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.  It’s voted on by all 32 NHL GMs as well as some NHL executives at the end of the second round.  Not surprisingly, all three of the finalists, who were named during the NHL Awards show, were among the four to help lead their teams to the conference finals including Julien BriseBois of the Lightning, Chris Drury of the Rangers, and Joe Sakic of the Avalanche.  Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello won the award a year ago.  The winner for this won’t be announced until partway through the first round of the draft next month in Montreal.

More news from awards night:

Igor Shesterkin Wins The 2022 Vezina Trophy

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.  First up was the Vezina Trophy for the best goaltender.  The winner of the award was Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin.  The other finalists were Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom and Nashville’s Juuse Saros.

The 26-year-old had a dominant season, leading the league with a 2.07 GAA along with a .935 SV%.  That helped lead New York to second place in the Metropolitan Division while recording their highest point total since the 2014-15 campaign and third-best in franchise history.  Shesterkin’s numbers in the playoffs were also quite strong as he put up a 2.59 GAA along with a .929 SV% as he helped the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final before they were eliminated in six by Tampa Bay.  He becomes the third Ranger to win the award under the current voting criteria, joining Henrik Lundqvist and John Vanbiesbrouck.

The Vezina Trophy is voted on by the 32 General Managers and it was a near-unanimous selection as Shesterkin took home 29 of 32 first-place votes while having more voting points than every other goalie combined.  Interestingly, the other two finalists didn’t receive a first-place vote with those nods going to Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning, Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders, and Frederik Andersen of the Hurricanes.

The full results of the voting can be found here.

Poll: NHL Award Predictions

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Tonight’s the night that the stars gather to hand out some fancy hardware at the 2022 NHL Awards in Tampa. Kenan Thompson will return to host the show, which will be the first live award event since 2019, with the last two canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The event will announce the winners of the Hart Trophy, the Norris Trophy, the Vezina Trophy, the Calder Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award, five of the most prestigious individual awards in hockey. With just a few hours before things kick off, let’s see if the PHR community can predict the winners of each.

For the Hart, given to the player “judged most valuable to his team,” the finalists are Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers. Remember that these are all regular season awards with a vote before the playoffs begin.

 

The Norris, given to the defenseman “who demonstrated throughout the season the greatest all-around ability at the position,” is down to Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The latter two are doing battle for a much bigger prize but could still add some hardware to their cases tonight if they can topple the Predators captain.

 

The Vezina, given to the best goaltender in the NHL and voted on by the league’s general managers, will be given to one of Shesterkin, Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames, or Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators. None of the three have won the award previously, meaning we’ll have a new name engraved this year.

 

Three very different rookies are on the ballot for the Calder, given to the top first-year player in the league. Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings and Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks will battle with 26-year-old Michael Bunting of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who finally got a chance to play regular minutes in the NHL and responded well.

 

Given the prestige of the Hart, the Ted Lindsay is sometimes overlooked as a major award but it shouldn’t be. The player-voted “most outstanding” award is a huge honor given it comes from direct peers and does not always go to the same recipient as the Hart. This year even the finalists are different, with Matthews and McDavid being joined by Josi on the ballot.

 

Cast your vote and make sure to come back to leave a comment with how many you got correct!

New York Rangers To Sign Olof Lindbom

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Another talented young goaltender is set to join the New York Rangers. CapFriendly has reported the terms of a to-be-announced entry-level contract between New York and 2018 second-round pick Olof Lindbom. The Swedish netminder is set to sign a two-year deal worth an AAV of $925K. The NHL salary in 2022-23 will be $750K and in 2023-24 will be $775K, with an AHL salary of $70K for both years. The contract also includes a $185K signing bonus, split evenly between each season, and games played bonuses of $82.5K in year one and $57.5K in year two.

Lindbom, 21, was the first goalie off the board at No. 39 overall in the 2018 NHL Draft. Lindbom had dominated the U-18 World Juniors that year, recording a .949 save percentage and 1.66 GAA in six games, and the Rangers didn’t want to miss out on his potential. However, Lindbom’s development has not been straight-line. In the four years since he was drafted, Lindbom has only played in Sweden’s U-20 SuperElit league and second-tier pro Allsvenskan league, finding varying levels of success and not earning any SHL appearances. With that being said, 2021-22 was Lindbom’s best pro season as he posted a career-high .900 save percentage in a career-high 27 games for Kristianstads IK. While that .900 number may not seem elite, it ranked 17th in the Allsvenskan and 10th among goalies who played in at least half of their team’s games; it’s not a bad mark for such a young goalie.

While the signing of Lindbom was inevitable and the timing is not surprising, as the Rangers likely want to play a more direct role in his development, the addition of another young goalie adds to the logjam in New York. The Rangers have long dealt with a two-headed monster at the NHL level in Igor Shesterkin, who at 26 is already the Vezina Trophy favorite, and talented backup Alexandar Georgiev, who is also just 26. In the minors, a pair of former NCAA standouts are awaiting their chances for more opportunity. Adam Huska, who just turned 25, was the backup to Keith Kinkaid for the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack despite outplaying the veteran. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Tyler Wall only played in five AHL games due to the organizational net depth. There’s also Dylan Garand, a 2020 fourth-round pick who has already signed his ELC, played in a couple AHL games last year, and has been stellar in each of the past two seasons with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers. The 19-year-old is ready for the next level. Lindbom will not be handed anything in New York; he will have to fight for his place on the depth chart like everyone else.

2022 Hart Trophy Finalists Announced

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It’s time for the big one. The NHL has announced the finalists for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the “player judged most valuable to his team.” Last year’s award went to Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, his second win after taking it home in 2017 as well.

This year’s finalists are McDavid, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers.

There’s not much to be said about the Oilers captain that hasn’t already been mentioned a million times. One of the most dynamic offensive players to ever grace the NHL, he reached new highs in goals and points this year with 44 and 123. It was the fourth time he has led the league in points, and this will be the fourth time he is a Hart finalist. With 697 points in his career already, he sits fourth in points/game among those who have played at least 450. Only Wayne Gretzky (1.92), Mario Lemieux (1.88), and the late Mike Bossy (1.50) sit ahead of McDavid’s 1.43 mark, an incredible accomplishment in this era.

Matthews, meanwhile, is a finalist for the second time after being the runner-up last season. Now the two-time Rocket Richard winner, the Maple Leafs forward is the best goal scorer in the league and reached a mark very rarely seen in today’s game. His 60 goals were the most since Steven Stamkos hit the same mark in 2011-12, and he became only the third player in the salary cap era to reach the mark (Alex Ovechkin has the top spot with 65 in 2007-08). More than just his goals though, it was Matthews’ overall production that skyrocketed this season, with the big center hitting 106 points in just 73 games.

Shesterkin is a first-time finalist, but if he continues to play at the level he established this season this certainly won’t be the last time he’s up for major awards. The 26-year-old netminder posted a .935 save percentage in 53 appearances and is the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best netminder. Moreover, the Rangers were routinely critiqued for their defensive zone breakdowns this season as a young team, breakdowns that Shesterkin regularly rescued them from with incredible saves. The Hart hasn’t been won by a goaltender since Carey Price in 2015, when he nearly swept the field, taking home the Jennings, Vezina, and Lindsay as well. Price’s save percentage that season was actually .933, just a few points below what Shesterkin did this year.

2022 Vezina Finalists Announced

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Over the next week, the NHL will be releasing the finalists for all of the major regular season awards. After yesterday’s Norris announcement, next up is the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the best goaltender in the NHL and is voted on by the league’s general managers.

This year’s finalists are Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames, Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, and Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators.

Markstrom, 32, is a finalist for the first time, following his best and most consistent season to date. Appearing in 63 games for the Pacific Division-winning Flames, the big netminder won 37 games, posted a .922 save percentage, and led the league with nine shutouts. The backbone for his team all season long, Markstrom was a huge part of the stingy Flames team that turned from a high-flying circus into a controlled, defensive team under head coach Darryl Sutter.

Shesterkin, 26, is the odds-on favorite to win the award, despite his recent struggles in the playoffs. The Rangers would have been absolutely lost without him this season, and he led the league in both save percentage and person goals-against average. That .935 mark was ten points higher than his nearest competitor and raised Shesterkin’s career number to something of legends. Among goaltenders with at least 100 NHL appearances (he has exactly that), his .928 career save percentage is well ahead of Dominik Hasek’s .922 for first place. It will obviously be hard to maintain that over a whole career, but the Russian netminder is off to a historic start.

Saros meanwhile shouldn’t be forgotten. The 27-year-old netminder appeared in 67 games for the Predators, more than any other goaltender in the league, despite being injured in the final week. Last year’s sixth-place finisher, he posted a strong .918 save percentage and dragged Nashville into a playoff spot. One of the smallest goaltenders in the league at 5’11”, Saros continues to show why the Predators were so excited about his development even when they still had Pekka Rinne in place as the starter. Since his rookie season in 2016-17, Saros hasn’t posted a save percentage under .914 and now has a career mark of .920 in 222 appearances, good for seventh on the all-time list.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Six, Chychrun

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The NHL has released its Three Stars for last week, with Dallas Stars phenom Jason Robertson taking the top spot following his back-to-back hat trick efforts. Robertson had seven goals in three games for the week and now has 46 goals and 100 points in his first 100 NHL contests. While he’s shooting an incredible 20.4 percent this season, the 22-year-old is proving he’s no fluke and should be among the league’s most dynamic offensive weapons for years to come.

The second and third spots went to Nick Schmaltz and Igor Shesterkin respectively, with outstanding weeks of their own. The Arizona Coyotes forward had an incredible seven-point night against the Ottawa Senators and has been playing huge minutes over the last few weeks, really stepping back into the offensive role he carried earlier in his career. Shesterkin meanwhile continued his historic season with three more wins and actually raised his save percentage to .942 on the year. Shesterkin leads in almost every goaltending category so far and has a 28-6-3 record to go with it.

  • The Toronto Six, a PHF franchise that came into existence in 2020, has been sold to a new ownership group that includes former NHL player Anthony Stewart, Hockey Hall of Fame member Angela James and former NHL coach Ted Nolan. The Six are currently in first place in the PHF with a 13-2-1 record on the year and are next in action on March 12.
  • The Coyotes still prefer to not trade Jakob Chychrun, according to general manager Bill Armstrong who spoke with The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco, but they won’t be turning down any calls. Armstrong admitted that “if someone were to offer the right assets” they would be interested in moving Chychrun, even if the “preference” is to not. Earlier this season, reports emerged suggesting that the asking price was quite high, an ask that obviously hasn’t been met to this point.

East Notes: Zaitsev, Canadiens, Shesterkin, Sabres, Daley

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The Senators will be without defenseman Nikita Zaitsev longer than expected as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays (Twitter link) that the veteran hasn’t resumed skating and will likely be out through the end of the month.  Originally, it was expected that he’d miss between three and five weeks due to his heel injury but that will now likely be pushed to six weeks or longer.  The 30-year-old had gotten off to a quiet start to his season with just two points in 22 games while logging 18:32 per night, the lowest ATOI of his career.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • As a result of seven more players entering COVID protocols in recent days, the Canadiens announced that they are extending their pause for two more days through Saturday. Montreal recently had a game next week against New Jersey postponed and now have nine games that need to be rescheduled.  They’re next scheduled to play on Wednesday against Boston.
  • Still with Montreal, defensive prospect Arber Xhekaj was traded in the OHL as the Hamilton Bulldogs announced his acquisition in exchange for five draft picks along with winger Navrin Mutter. Xhekaj was undrafted in both the OHL and NHL but turned a rookie camp tryout into an entry-level contract with the Canadiens late in the preseason.  Meanwhile, Mutter got into three games with Calgary’s farm team in Stockton last season but no team holds his NHL rights.
  • Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin was a late scratch for their game against Vegas as the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that the netminder was placed into COVID protocol. Assuming it’s for a confirmed positive test, he’ll be out for at least the next five days.  Keith Kinkaid was recalled from the taxi squad in a corresponding roster move.
  • The Sabres got some good news on the COVID protocol front today as the team announced (Twitter link) prior to their game against San Jose that centers Dylan Cozens, Zemgus Girgensons, and Mark Jankowski were all cleared to return. The trio last played on December 17th and each missed three games.
  • While the Florida Everblades of the ECHL raised some eyebrows today when they announced the signing of Penguins staffer Trevor Daley, Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes (Twitter link) that Daley will remain in his advisory role with Pittsburgh. With ECHL teams ravaged by COVID-19, injuries and recalls, it appears the Everblades are going to use Daley for a game or two until they get some of their players back.  Daley last played back in the 2019-20 season with Detroit.

Metropolitan Notes: Flyers, Shesterkin, Nemeth, Hurricanes

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The Flyers announced that they’ve placed Max Willman and a staff member in COVID protocol.  The 26-year-old has been a feel-good story for Philadelphia this season as he made his NHL debut this season and has chipped in with two goals and an assist in a dozen games.  Willman was originally drafted by Buffalo back in 2014 but didn’t sign.  He becomes the second Flyer currently in COVID protocol joining center Morgan Frost.

Meanwhile, goaltender Carter Hart will be unavailable for tonight’s game against Ottawa due to an undetermined illness.  The team announced (Twitter link) that Felix Sandstrom has been recalled from AHL Lehigh Valley to serve as Martin Jones’ backup.  They will get some help on the injury front, however, as winger Joel Farabee will return to the lineup after missing the last seven games due to a shoulder injury.  The 21-year-old has seven goals in 21 games so far this season.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin is ready to return from his lower-body injury as the team announced (Twitter link) that he has been activated off injured reserve with Keith Kinkaid being returned to AHL Hartford in a corresponding move.  The 25-year-old missed just over two weeks with the injury and had been off to a strong start to his season with a 2.05 GAA and a .937 SV% in 18 games.  Kinkaid, meanwhile, picked up the victory on Wednesday against Arizona.
  • From that same announcement, Rangers blueliner Patrik Nemeth has been placed in COVID protocol.  The 30-year-old had played in all 30 of New York’s games to this point, recording two assists along with 57 blocked shots while logging just over 17 minutes per game.  He’ll miss the next ten days.
  • Carolina won’t be getting any help on the injury front for a little while as Walt Ruff of the Hurricanes’ team site relays (Twitter link) that winger Jordan Martinook and defenseman Jalen Chatfield aren’t close to returning from their respective lower-body injuries. Martinook has been out for a little more than two weeks and head coach Rod Brind’Amour acknowledged that the 29-year-old could start skating soon but still will need a fair bit of time before he’s able to come back.  Meanwhile, Chatfield’s injury was more recent, sustained back on Sunday against his former team in Vancouver.

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