Igor Shesterkin has been the Rangers’ best player in the playoffs and will need to stay that way if the club wants to win a Stanley Cup in the near future.
That’s why the Russian star goaltender, who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season, is a priority now rather than later.
The Rangers have eight players who will become UFAs or restricted free agents this summer, including three who have been multi-year regulars, but if Shesterkin’s performance this postseason has told us anything, it’s that he is absolutely vital to the Rangers’ Stanley Cup aspirations.
“I haven’t seen a goaltender have a series like that since Jose Theodore in 2002,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said Saturday night after his team beat the Rangers 2-1 to advance to their second consecutive Stanley Cup final. “He won the Hart Trophy that year.”
Shesterkin faced 524 shots in 16 playoff games, and the Blueshirts lost by shots in 13 of those games.
He posted a .926 save percentage and a 2.34 goals against percentage and kept his team competitive game after game, even in games they probably didn’t deserve to win by more than a point.
There’s reason to believe Shesterkin’s camp is targeting a high salary of $12 million per year, which would be an NHL record salary-cap hit for a goaltender.
On July 1, the Blueshirts will be allowed to begin negotiations with the 2022 Vezina Trophy winner’s camp.
Kelly Price’s eight-year contract with Montreal averages $10.5 million per year and is worth $84 million in total, while Andrei Vasilievskiy’s contract with the Lightning has a salary cap hit of $9.5 million and is worth $76 million in total.
Coincidentally, the most notable comparison is Shesterkin’s compatriot, Sergei Bobrovsky, who was on the other side of the ice when the Rangers lost in the Eastern Conference finals.
Bobrovsky is entering the penultimate season of a contract that pays him a $70 million annual salary and an average annual salary of $10 million.
It’s not uncommon for the Rangers to allocate a significant portion of their funds to a goaltender after Henrik Lundqvist spent the majority of his 15-year career as the club’s top player.
Lundqvist had a salary cap hit of $8.5 million from 2014-15 through 2019-20 before being bought out at the end of the 2020-21 season.
At the time, the cap ranged from $69 million to $81.5 million, and Lundqvist made up between 12.3% and 10.4% of the Rangers’ budget.
The cap is expected to exceed $87 million next year and then jump to the $92 million to $93 million range two years later.
If Shesterkin were to earn $12 million, that would amount to roughly 13% of the cap, which would decrease as it increases each year.
It will be interesting to see how goaltending director Benoit Allaire’s decision to reduce his role with the team affects negotiations with Shesterkin, who has praised the longtime goaltending coach throughout his five seasons in New York.
Although Allière, who just completed his 20th year with the franchise, will no longer be the day-to-day goaltending coach, the 60-year-old will not only continue to be involved with all of the goaltenders, but will also play a large role in the team’s search for Allière’s replacement.
The Islanders named Sergei Naumovs, who spent two seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League working with Islanders goaltender and Shesterkin friend Ilya Sorokin, as the AHL team’s goaltending coach.
Naumovs will certainly work with Sorokin during training camp.
The goaltending corps was strong enough to give the Rangers a chance in the playoffs every year.
They’ll need to strengthen the rest of their team if they want to get past that final hurdle in the conference anytime soon.
The question remains to be seen whether the Rangers can do that while giving Shesterkin the contract he earned and he deserves.
“He’s been our best player since he’s put on a Rangers uniform,” Chris Kreider said. “Without him, we wouldn’t be here.”
