The Columbus Blue Jackets kept dipping back into the Rangers’ old roster pool Monday, adding veteran goalie Cam Talbot on a one-year, $950,000 contract after bringing in Carson Soucy on a PTO the day before.
Talbot’s arrival gives Columbus a seasoned insurance option in net. Jet Greaves is set as the No. 1 goalie, while Elvis Merzlikins is out indefinitely after shoulder surgery. The Blue Jackets already signed Pheonix Copley to a one-year deal in free agency on July 1, but Talbot arrives as the more proven option, even at 39 years old.
The former Ranger has been around the block since leaving New York. Talbot was dealt from the Rangers to the Edmonton Oilers in the summer of 2015, and Columbus becomes his eighth different team since then.
His most recent stop was Detroit, where he spent the last two seasons. In 2024-25, Talbot started 43 games for the Red Wings.
Last season, with Detroit having added John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks before the year, Talbot worked in more of a backup role, appearing in 34 games and making 25 starts. He finished with a career-low .883 save percentage and a 3.19 goals-against average.
Per MoneyPuck, Talbot posted minus-13.1 goals saved above expected, which placed him 92nd out of 98 goalies.
Talbot’s Rangers story, though, still stands as one of the better late-blooming goalie runs in recent team history. Signed as an undrafted college free agent out of Alabama-Huntsville, he spent five seasons in the minors before getting his NHL shot in 2013-14, when he stepped in as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup after Martin Biron abruptly retired early in the season.
He made 21 appearances, including 19 starts, as a rookie and was excellent: 12-6-1 with a 1.64 GAA, a .941 save percentage, and three shutouts. The Rangers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final that spring, then fell to the Los Angeles Kings in five games.
The next season, Rangers fans voted Talbot to the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award after he filled in for the injured Lundqvist and helped the team win the Presidents’ Trophy. He followed that with a 21-9-4 line in 36 games, including 34 starts, in 2014-15, putting up a 2.21 GAA, a .926 save percentage, and five shutouts. With Lundqvist back for the playoffs, the Rangers reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final before losing 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That run set up Talbot’s move out of New York. The Rangers traded him to Edmonton for three draft picks after that season, and he went on to become the Oilers’ No. 1 goalie for four seasons. Since then, he’s also skated through stops with the Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, Kings, and Red Wings.
Talbot has played in the NHL All-Star Game in 2022 and 2024, and his career numbers now sit at 278-204-53 with a 2.69 GAA, a .911 save percentage, and 33 shutouts across 567 NHL games, including 533 starts. With Jonathan Quick retired after last season, Talbot is now the oldest active goaltender in the league.
In Other News...
Rangers Rookie Weekend Raised One Big Question About Their Young Talent
Liam Greentree gave the Rangers a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise rough Rookie Series weekend at PPL Center, scoring his first goal in a 4-1 loss to the Flyers prospects. New York dropped both games in the two-game set, including a 3-2 defeat on Saturday, but the weekend still offered a look at several of the organizations younger players and where they stand as camp begins to sharpen the picture.
Danai Shaiikov helped keep things competitive in goal with several key saves, even as the Rangers were unable to slow Philadelphia enough to swing either result. Greentrees finish will draw attention, especially after a weekend when the group needed more offense and more consistency, and the bigger question now is which young players can turn those flashes into something that carries into the rest of camp. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers May Have A Camp Sleeper In Their Crowded Center Battle
The Rangers prospects left the annual Rookie Series against Philadelphia empty-handed after a two-game sweep, but one of the more notable takeaways for New York came from Dylan Roobroeck. The Hartford Wolf Pack center was around the puck, scored in the series and showed the kind of edge that can get a coachs attention, which matters for a player trying to break into a crowded camp battle down the middle.
Roobroeck has been a steady presence in Hartford over the past two AHL seasons, and that consistency is part of why he is being viewed as a dark-horse candidate to earn NHL looks. If he brings that same blend of production and reliability into training camp, he could force his way into the conversation for games with the Rangers sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Rookie Camp Just Got More Complicated For One Key Prospect
Rookie camp always has a way of sorting out the hopefuls quickly, and the Rangers have already run into a complication with one of the players trying to make a case for himself. Cole Beaudoin entered camp with a real chance to turn heads, but an injury picked up in a rookie tournament game has slowed that push and made the early days of evaluation a little less clean for the front office.
Beaudoin came to the organization from Utah in the Vincent Trocheck trade, which gave his camp an added edge because he was more than just another body skating for attention. Even with the door still open, any missed time at this stage matters, and the Rangers now have to balance what theyve seen from him against how quickly he can get back on the ice and back into the mix. [Read more 🡒]