The New York Rangers have agreed to an expensive contract extension with star, Vezina-Winning netminder Igor “Shesty” Shesterkin. According to ESPN and TSNs Kevin Weekes on X this afternoon, alongside ESPN hockey reporter Emily Kaplan, the extension is eight years. It is worth between $11.5M and $12M per year. This would outstrip the 2024-25 cap hits of very excellent and expensive current NHL goalies. Montreal Canadiens legend Carey Prices cap hit this year is 10.5M. Florida Panthers star goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who played a large role in the Cats first Stanley Cup championship last year, has a $10M AAV this year.
“Breaking news. Breaking news. I’m told the Rangers have signed an eight-year extension, in principle, with Igor Shesterkin. Let’s go,” Weekes said in a video included in the post.
New York Rangers Goalie Igor Shesterkin History
It is safe to say Shesty has earned this expensive contract, finishing all four of his Broadway Blueshirts playoffs so far with at least a .900 save percentage in each, in addition to his great regular seasons. His playoff peak save percentage was .931 in 2022-23. The 28-year-old Moscow native has played in two NHL All-Star Games, and notched four shutouts last regular season. But 2021-22 was when the New York Rangers goalie brought home the crown jewel of goaltending awards, the Vezina Trophy, also won by Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist nine years prior. He notched a 2.09 goals-against average and .935 save percentage, the second being the highest regular-season save percentage of his NHL career.
The Cats Sergei Bobrovsky is a goalie of Shesty’s caliber and we see an eight-figure cap hit for him, so if paying Shesty $1.5M or $2M more will affect the goalie market in any way, so be it. The already great Rangers skaters should feel more confident and thus better with a netminder like Shesterkin sitting behind them.
Main Photo: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
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