After all of the noise, after all of the disruption centering round Jacob Trouba, the week will finish with an affirmative exclamation level.
The Rangers have made a dedication to the longer term.
The Rangers have made a dedication to the current.
The Rangers have made a dedication to Igor Shesterkin.
And Shesterkin has made a dedication to the Rangers.
The Post has discovered the Blueshirts and their franchise goaltender have reached an settlement on an eight-year, $92 million contract extension that can kick in subsequent season below which Shesterkin will earn an annual common worth of $11.5 million, a document for an NHL goaltender.
The Rangers have but to make the signing official, so when requested about it after the workforce’s 4-2 win over the Penguins, Shesterkin opted to not remark.
“Maybe we are able to discuss it tomorrow,” No. 31 mentioned jokingly.
The signing at that quantity represents a coup for the Rangers and GM Chris Drury in an setting during which hypothesis has run rampant on whether or not the Blueshirts a) may commerce Shesterkin; or, b) be capable to hold him off the free-agent market subsequent July.
The signing represents probably the most optimistic information of a season during which the workforce has been buffeted by exterior noise whereas enmeshed in inner turmoil, having misplaced six of seven earlier than Friday night time’s victory on the Garden.
This is a press release that Drury and the hierarchy should not turning their backs on this season or the close to future and certainly imagine on this workforce.
One problem down.
Montreal’s Carey Price had been the highest-paid goaltender in NHL historical past below an eight-year, $84 million take care of annual common wage of $10.5 million that commenced in 2018. Price has been on long-term injured reserve due to knee points for the reason that finish of the 2021-22 season.
If the 2025-26 cap is about on the projected $92.4 million, Shesterkin’s contract will account for 12.44 p.c of the full. Artemi Panarin, who stays the highest-paid participant in franchise historical past at $11,642,857 per, accounted for 14.29 p.c of the cap in his first yr in New York. When Henrik Lundqvist’s ultimate contract kicked in in 2014-15, the King accounted for 12.32 p.c of the cap whereas incomes $8.5 million per.
This was not an train in greed from Shesterkin, represented by Rick Komarow and Maxim Moliver. Not within the least. After securing a document second contract for a goaltender 4 years in the past below which the netminder is incomes an AAV of $5,666,667, it was a matter of discovering the quantity that will hold the workforce’s most beneficial participant in New York.
The native of Moscow, who will flip 29 on Dec. 30, rejected an eight-year, $88 million supply on the eve of the opener that put him on observe to check the July 1 unrestricted free-agent market. But although the netminder’s camp indicated there could be no additional talks till the season’s finish, Drury reached out early this week and reopened negotiations that got here to fruition Friday.
Shesterkin, whose early brilliance carried the Blueshirts to 5-0-1 and 12-4-1 getaways, went 6-2-1 with a 2.22 GAA and .933 save share via Nov. 3. But he has understandably buckled whereas dealing with a succession of odd-man rushes and high-danger probabilities created by repeated breakdowns at each ends of the ice.
Perhaps satirically, the 2022 Vezina winner is within the midst of a career-high five-game dropping streak. He stands 8-9-1 with a 3.05 GAA and .908 save share, although he has been the Rangers’ greatest participant via this difficult first quarter.
The Blueshirts chosen the Russian within the fourth spherical (114th total) of the 2014 draft out of Moscow Spartak Jr. Shesterkin graduated to St. Petersburg of the KHL earlier than coming to North America for the 2019-20 season.
Shesterkin was promoted to the Rangers on Jan. 6, 2020, after a half-season with the AHL Wolf Pack and displaced Lundqvist from the No. 1 job in a three-goalie situation that included Alex Georgiev below then-head coach David Quinn.
No. 31 then commanded the No. 1 job the next 56-game season after Lundqvist had been purchased out with Georgiev serving because the backup. A yr later, Shesterkin posted a .935 save share that ranks because the third-best in NHL historical past behind Tim Thomas’ .938 in 2010-11 and Dominik Hasek’s .937 in 1998-99 (50-game minimal) to safe the Vezina earlier than main the Rangers to the convention ultimate.
Indeed, Shesterkin has been the Blueshirts’ greatest participant in every of the previous three playoff seasons, recording a .928 save share and a 2.39 GAA whereas taking his workforce to the ultimate 4 twice. He is mostly acknowledged because the NHL’s greatest goaltender.
That is why subsequent yr he’ll turn out to be the highest-paid goaltender in NHL historical past.
