Igor Shesterkin’s standing around the NHL remains exactly where Rangers fans think it should be: near the top.
New York has lived through two seasons it would rather erase, first missing the playoffs in 2024-25 and then somehow following that with an even rougher year that ended with the Rangers in last place in the Eastern Conference. Still, after an aggressive offseason, the belief in the building is that general manager Chris Drury has put together a roster capable of getting the team back into the playoffs and, eventually, back into the Stanley Cup picture.
And at the center of all of it is Shesterkin. For Rangers fans, the math is simple: when he’s in goal, the team’s odds of winning jump. He’s been the cleanest possible heir to Henrik Lundqvist, which is why New York can honestly say it has goalie luxury most teams would love to borrow.
Leaguewide, Shesterkin doesn’t always get the same attention as names like Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, or Sergei Bobrovsky. But that doesn’t mean he’s overlooked by people inside the sport.
The Athletic’s recent NHL player tiers project, which drew on evaluations from a panel of 20 hockey-world figures, placed Shesterkin in the second tier, reserved for franchise players and the top 30 players in the game. One former player gave him a particularly strong vote of confidence.
“I still have Shesterkin as my best,” the former player told The Athletic. “Look, I wouldn't put him as a Tier 1 guy either, but maybe the only one that would be 2A.
“If you asked me to pick a guy for my team right now that is gonna give me the best chance to win the Cup, that's the guy I would go with.”
No goalie cracked the top tier, which is reserved for the league’s top 10 players. But Shesterkin landed among the sport’s elite netminders, with Hellebuyck right next to him in the 2B group. Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders and Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning were placed in 2C.
The lack of a Stanley Cup Final appearance on Shesterkin’s résumé doesn’t erase what he’s already done in the postseason. In 2022, the Rangers made a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing in six games to the Lightning. Two years later, they won the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team, only to fall to the Florida Panthers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Across four playoff runs, Shesterkin has posted a .928 save percentage and a 2.41 goals allowed average. For a team chasing a title, that’s the kind of production that matters most.
The Rangers also know how rare it is to have a goalie of this caliber under contract. Finding a true No. 1 is hard enough; finding one this good is another level entirely.
That’s part of why other teams have been chasing Hellebuyck after his request to leave the Winnipeg Jets. Without Shesterkin, the Rangers could easily be one of the clubs trying to spend prospects and draft capital to land a star in net.
Instead, New York chose a retool over a rebuild, betting it can move past the last two seasons and re-enter the contender conversation soon. But the margin for error is not exactly wide.
Shesterkin is signed through the summer of 2032, though the rising salary cap and the wave of expensive deals across the league could force the Rangers back to the table for a new contract. The bigger concern is what happens if the team keeps sliding in the wrong direction.
If that happens, Shesterkin could become frustrated with where things are headed, and that can lead to a trade request. Hockey has already seen stars such as Brady Tkachuk, Dylan Larkin and Hellebuyck ask out of their situations.
Drury has already taken some swings this offseason to give Shesterkin a better team in front of him. The defense looks stronger on paper with Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson joining Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov on the second pair.
The third pair, at some point, could be Braden Schneider and fifth-overall pick Alberts Smits. The Rangers also completed a sign-and-trade for Vegas Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev, who then signed a seven-year, $77 million contract.
All of it is aimed at getting the Rangers back into the playoffs from a Metropolitan Division that is less punishing than the Atlantic Division.
For all the noise around New York’s recent downturn, Shesterkin’s reputation hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s still one of the most respected goalies in the game.
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Igor Shesterkin remains locked in as the starter, but one remaining choice in net still carries some real weight for the organizations depth chart. With the backup role unsettled, the Rangers are weighing how they want to handle a spot that could matter more than it seems in the long run, especially if the season starts testing the margins of their goaltending depth early. [Read more 🡒]
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Joonas Korpisalo arrived in the offseason to give New York a proven option behind Shesterkin, but Garands path is more complicated than a standard backup challenge. The Rangers have already committed to him with a two-year extension, and the way they handle the final roster spot will say plenty about how they value immediate insurance versus long-term development. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Have Elite Stars But This Ranking Raises A Bigger Roster Debate
The Athletics preseason player tiers offered a familiar reminder of where the Rangers top end stands, with Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox landing in the uppermost group below only the MVP class. Shesterkin drew the expected elite billing as one of the leagues premier goaltenders, while Foxs placement came with a more nuanced scouting read that still centered on his intelligence and style even as evaluators noted questions about his speed.
What makes the list more interesting for New York is the company those two keep further down the board. Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller were among the Rangers grouped into the Support tier, the kind of placement that underscores how much of the roster is built around excellent contributors rather than a long line of true drivers. For a team with championship expectations, that gap between star power and supporting cast is the part worth watching. [Read more 🡒]