Throughout his news conference, standing against a Red Wings-branded backdrop in the aftermath of a loss to the Rangers on Monday, Derek Lalonde kept complimenting Igor Shesterkin. A “very, very special goalie.” The difference in a 4-1 game.
And then the Detroit head coach, who observed plenty of elite goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy during his run as a Lightning assistant, dropped his most notable praise of the night: “I can see why he turned down the 88 [million]. Good agent.”
In the three-game sample of regular-season games since Shesterkin declined an eight-year, $88 million extension that would’ve made him the NHL’s highest-paid goalie, he has continued to bail out the Blueshirts — especially during the second period against the Red Wings — and produce a strong start to what has now become a contract season.
Igor Shesterkin makes save against Red Wings in Rangers’ win on Oct. 14, 2024.
Monday didn’t have the same ending as his opening-night shutout. It wasn’t as rocky as the Rangers’ loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, either.
But while the Rangers figure out their defensive issues in front of their Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender, Shesterkin has provided early evidence — perhaps enough to keep bumping his price tag higher and higher — that he can help them bridge the gap until everything clicks.
“It was a really tough game to judge him [Saturday],” head coach Peter Laviolette said postgame, “and I said this before, there’s times where I think we just do things that — not a lot of goaltenders can make the save that needed to be made last game. You might make one, but when you need four or five of them out there, there’s gonna be trouble coming at you.
“And so I was glad to see that we got better right in front of him, tightened up a little bit in front of him, but there’s still work to do and that’s what goaltenders are there for, to make big saves, and he’s really good at that as well.”
Last year, everything revolved around Shesterkin’s struggles by the time the All-Star break arrived and his save percentage dipped under .900. He didn’t record his first shutout of the season until February.
There were questions — briefly — about whether a surging Jonathan Quick could take starts from Shesterkin while he reset. But the Rangers stuck by their franchise goaltender through the rough patch, and after a bit, and especially during their run to the Eastern Conference Final, their patience paid off.
But during the 2024-25 campaign, through strong stretches like his first three games and any struggles that might follow across the next five-plus months, the underlying context to Shesterkin will involve his contract situation, the deal he turned down and his looming free agency.
For now, he has played a critical role in the Rangers earning five of six possible points. Shesterkin has an expected goals against of 9.34 — the fourth-highest mark in the NHL — but has allowed just seven, per Money Puck.
Midway through the opening period Monday, Shesterkin tracked Lucas Raymond as he neared the net, tucked the puck and hesitated before wristing a shot toward him. Then, in the second period, with the Rangers killing a penalty, Shesterkin held his positioning in front of the net as J.T. Compher and Patrick Kane both had chances — three of the six saves he made during the penalty kill and three of the 14 he made during the second period.
“I just need to be focused,” Shesterkin said postgame of his second period. “If it’s 14 shots, I need to be ready. If it’s one shot, I need to be ready, too.”
That middle period irritated Laviolette, he said. The Rangers were “too casual,” and unlike how the first and third periods marked progress, the second frame marked the reappearance of the same defensive issues that plagued the forward lines and the new-look defensive pairings — just about everyone.
Igor Shesterkin (left) and Will Cuylle celebrate win over Detroit.
Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad said, gives the Rangers a chance to win every start, and Monday was the latest example. He has saved the Blueshirts defensive lapses from spiraling into something worse. For now, that’s quantified by five points, zero regulation losses and all of the saves he strung together.
In the eyes of Lalonde, that’s worth more than $88 million.
