This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Igor Shesterkin
New York Rangers Goaltender
27-29-5 and a .9046 in the first season of the largest goaltending contract ever signed, and the club's goaltending still finished 10th.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | NYR | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 2.52 | 0 | 424 | .932 |
| 2020-21 | NYR | 35 | 16 | 14 | 3 | 83 | 2.62 | 2 | 987 | .916 |
| 2021-22 | NYR | 53 | 36 | 13 | 4 | 106 | 2.07 | 6 | 1622 | .935 |
| 2022-23 | NYR | 58 | 37 | 13 | 8 | 144 | 2.48 | 3 | 1719 | .916 |
| 2023-24 | NYR | 55 | 36 | 17 | 2 | 141 | 2.58 | 4 | 1606 | .912 |
| 2024-25 | NYR | 61 | 27 | 29 | 5 | 167 | 2.86 | 6 | 1751 | .905 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 274 | 162 | 88 | 22 | 670 | 2.52 | 21 | 8109 | .917 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 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
27-29-5 in 61 games with a .9046, a 2.86 average and 6 shutouts, facing 1,751 shots — among the heaviest workloads in the league.
The club’s goaltending came in 9.8 goals better than the chances faced, 10th in the league, behind a defence that was 28th at suppressing them. A .9046 with 6 shutouts is an unusual line: it says the bad nights were bad and the good ones were closed, and it is the worst save percentage of his career.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 199, and the most technically complete goaltender in this chapter. He is square almost without exception, he reads the play across the slot before it arrives, and the depth management is the signature — he never travels further out than the shot requires.
The glove is excellent and the lateral movement is genuinely quick for a positional goaltender. The rebound control is the one ordinary part of it, and in front of a club conceding chances at the 28th-ranked rate it was punished more often than it would be anywhere else. He handles the puck competently and does not start a breakout with it.
The Mental Game
This is the reason for the contract. He has twice carried a bad defensive club further than it deserved to go, and the record in elimination games is the best thing on his file.
61 starts behind the 28th-ranked chance suppression is a season of being shot at, and he did not visibly come apart at any point in it. A .9046 across that is a disappointing number and it is not the same thing as a bad goaltender, which the 9.8 goals of surplus says plainly.
The Intangibles
A fourth-round pick who did not arrive from Russia until he was 23, won the Vezina in his second full season, and signed an eight-year extension in December that made him the highest-paid goaltender in the history of the league.
274 games, a .9174 career save percentage, and 21 shutouts. He is 29 and the contract runs into his late thirties. Everything about this roster’s next five years is built on the assumption that the last season was the floor.