Igor Shesterkin

This Season So Far

The 2026-27 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

51 appearances, 25-19-6, a 2.50 goals-against average and a .9116 save percentage with 1 shutout. His career figure across 325 games is .9165, the best of any goaltender in this book.

The Physical Game

6-1, 199, which is small by the standards of the position now, and he plays it as athletically as anyone in the league. The recoveries are the thing — he makes second and third saves from positions that should not be recoverable, and does it without the scrambling look that usually accompanies them.

Rebound control is good. Tracking through traffic is excellent.

The Mental Game

He has been the best goaltender in the world for stretches and has also had public runs of ordinariness, and neither seems to move him much. 51 appearances behind a club that could not score is its own kind of test.

Over his last 10, .901 on 252 shots.

The Intangibles

New York’s goaltending came in 2 goals worse than the chances it faced, which for a .9116 season sounds wrong until you see the split: Shesterkin at .9116 across 51 games and Korpisalo at .8942 across 31.

The club finished 29th in the league in even-strength expected goals for and eleventh against. It could defend and it could not score, and no goaltender fixes that.

He is 30. On this roster he is the most valuable asset by some distance and the one least able to change the outcome.