The Rangers spent the offseason trying to steer out of a dead end, but the real reason that matters is sitting in goal. Igor Shesterkin is already good enough to change the shape of a season on his own, and the more his résumé grows, the more urgent it becomes for New York to stop squandering his prime.
That’s the tension hanging over Chris Drury’s “retool.” He didn’t choose a full rebuild after last season’s last-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
Instead, the Rangers brought in Pavel Dorofeyev, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Sean Durzi, and Marcus Pettersson in an effort to push the roster back toward playoff relevance and, eventually, Stanley Cup contention. On paper, the group looks better than the one that stumbled through last year.
The problem is that Shesterkin gives them no excuse to sit still.
He is still only 30, but he is already being talked about like a future Hall of Famer. The Athletic’s Peter Baugh and Max Bultman placed him in the “check back in a few years” tier in their ranking of current NHL players and their Hall of Fame chances, noting that another strong Vezina Trophy season could shift his outlook.
“We considered bumping the New York Rangers goalie up a tier from last year because of his 2021-22 Vezina win and a recent run of goalie inductions. But Shesterkin has only one other top-five Vezina finish (fourth in 2023-24), and there’s no way to know how the Hall of Fame committee will view goalies when he’s up for election,” write Baugh and Bultman. “So he probably needs another season at least around Vezina finalist-level to move into 'On track.'”
That’s the bar now: not just being elite, but staying in that conversation long enough to make the Hall of Fame case undeniable. Shesterkin won the Vezina in 2021-22, then followed it with only one other top-five finish, that fourth-place result in 2023-24.
The talent is obvious. The résumé still needs more.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have to prove they can build fast enough around him. Last season’s collapse got worse after Shesterkin and Adam Fox were injured, and Drury’s January “retool” letter came shortly after both were sidelined. When Shesterkin was healthy, he still posted a .912 save percentage and a 2.50 goals allowed average, but there’s only so much any goalie can do for a team that’s not holding up its end.
The defense should look sturdier this time around. Durzi brings the puck-moving element head coach Mike Sullivan flagged for the fanbase at his end-of-season press conference, while Pettersson arrives with familiarity in Sullivan’s system from their long run together with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The expectation is that Durzi and Pettersson form the second pair behind Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov, with Braden Schneider dropping to the third pair after an uneven season with a heavier workload. That spot could go to Matthew Robertson, or to fifth-overall pick Alberts Smits if he earns it in training camp.
The help in front of Shesterkin should also improve up front. Dorofeyev gives the Rangers another scorer and could land on the top line after being a consistent 35-plus goal scorer with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Bjorkstrand should strengthen the middle six, particularly if he ends up on the third line. The absence of Vincent Trocheck could create a production gap, though, and the Rangers may still need another forward before training camp.
If they don’t add one, they’ll be banking on one of their prospects - Liam Greentree or Cole Beaudoin - forcing their way onto the roster in the preseason.
That should be enough to make New York more competitive than it was a year ago. But the bigger picture hasn’t changed: the Rangers need to keep adding talent, and soon, if they want to turn Shesterkin’s brilliance into something bigger. Drury’s next move may need to come as early as next summer, when the push for a true star could become unavoidable if the goal is to chase the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1994.
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Chris Drurys challenge is less about a single signing than the overall shape of the roster in 2026-27 and 2027-28, when restricted free agents, unfinished depth spots and the lure of outside help all begin to collide with the cap. The Rangers can map out targets and keep an eye on future free-agent classes, but the bigger question is whether they can avoid boxing themselves in before the next round of contract decisions even arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Roster Debate Just Got Real After Last Seasons Injury Collapse
Last seasons collapse left the Rangers with a harsh reminder of how thin the margin can be when injuries hit the core of a roster. Losing players like Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox sent the team into a spiral it never recovered from, and the final standings made clear how badly the group struggled to absorb those absences.
Joonas Korpisalo and Sean Durzi are the latest attempts to harden that roster against a repeat in 2026-27, giving New York more cover in goal and on defense if the injury bug shows up again. The question now is whether those additions are enough to change the conversation from survival to actual stability, because the Rangers know all too well how quickly a season can unravel when the depth chart gets tested. [Read more 🡒]