Rangers Extending Igor Shesterkin Has Pros and Cons

Igor Shesterkin has officially signed a 4-year, $22.666M contract (5.65 AAV) per Frank Seravalli. Some may argue that this is an overpayment for someone who has had groin problems in his first two NHL seasons and only has played 47 career regular-season NHL games. But on the flip side of this, Shesterkin has dominated at every level he has played and he is showing that he will soon be an elite level goaltender for a long time. With that in mind, lets go in-depth in the pros and cons of signing Shesterkin to a long-term contract.

Pros

The big positive to Shesterkin signing a long-term contract with the Rangers is that very soon it can look like an absolute bargain, as right now he already is a quality goaltender. Ever since entering the league, via Evolving-Hockey Shesterkin is 7th in GSAx (goals saved above expected) with a 10.63 GSAx, 10th in GSAA (goals saved above average) with a 15.18 GSAA, and via NaturalStatTrick (among goaltenders who’ve played at least 1000 minutes) Shesterkin ranks 1st in HDSV% (high danger save percentage) with a 0.852 HDSV%; so it is fair to say Shesterkin is continuing his high-level of play and will continue to improve especially with legendary goaltending coach Benoit Allaire. To add on to Shesterkin’s next contract possibly becoming a bargain, sevenof the top 10 highest paid goaltenders are goalies who were paid in 2019-2021 and the high-level goalies will continue to earn more and more money, as we saw with players like Jacob Markstrom, Jordan Binnington, and Phillip Grubauer. Therefore being able to lockup your guy in net for the now and future no matter the money will be huge, after all, you can make the argument Shesterkin is currently a top 10 goalie and is guaranteed to continue to rise and transform into an All-Star caliber netminder who can be seen as one of the best in 2-3 years. So, with the information in mind of Shesterkin already being a top-notch goalie in the NHL and how goalies will continue to make the big bucks, his contract will look so beautiful with the Rangers and can be seen as one of the best contracts in the league.

Cons

With pros, there are cons, and the biggest con that people talk about, is Shesterkin’s consistency to play throughout a season and if his groin will get in the way of his career. First, let’s talk about consistency, the most amount of games Shesterkin has played in a professional hockey season was in the KHL where in 2016-17 he played 39 games and put up a 1.64 GAA and a .937 SV% along with in the playoffs, where he played 5 games and put up a .940% with a 1.84 GAA. Also, in his NHL career the most games he’s played is 35, so can he maintain a high-level of play throughout a full season. Well, it is definitely possible as when Henrik Lundqvist came over to NY, the most games he played before entering the NHL was in 2003-04 where with Frolunda of the SHL he played 48 games. Then a couple years after that he was made into the Rangers main goaltender where he’d play 70+ games, and the rest was history from there. In addition, the goaltender guru himself, Benoit Allaire, can help Shesterkin maintain a consistent level of play throughout lets say 60 games this coming season as we seen time and time again Allaire is able to transform goalies into consistent goalies with the Rangers and play at their highest level possible. All in all, Shesterkin’s consistency should not be an issue with the Rangers.

Now, the main concern with Shesterkin is his groin problems. This past season Shesterkin was out for a long period of time due to a non-contact groin injury against the Devils that kept him out for weeks, and the season before that in the play-ins against Carolina he was out for 2 games because of a groin issue. So, will this become a re-occurring theme in his career where we see Shesterkin out for long periods of time, or will it be something minor that won’t affect his career as a whole. Well, this is a question that will be answered as time goes on because right now, no one has a definitive answer. After all, when Shesterkin came back from his groin injury he played as if nothing happened, he even made saves that really tested it and played the majority of games for the Rangers, so we’ll have to wait and see if Shesterkin’s groin becomes a major issue or not.

Concluding Thoughts

Locking up Shesterkin was a must for the Rangers, and they accomplished that. Having him make 5.65M for the next 4-years will become a bargain if he continues his high level of play, which he most likely can as we seen in the KHL and so far in the NHL he has continuously played really good every year. It will also be exciting to see what Benoit Allaire will continue to do with Shesterkin as his career moves along with the Rangers and how fans will be able to see his improvements from year to year. Lastly, the Rangers now have $8,821,031 in cap per CapFriendly with this Shesterkin contract, so it will be interesting to see if they spend their remaining money or not as we cap off the remainder of the offseason.

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