Walker Rangers' Igor Shesterkin Could Aim for Historic Contract After Dominant Playoff Run

[Albatrosss]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

 

I wouldn't give him $12 million if he went up in the stands and gave us all blow jobs.

 

This whole idea of "we HAVE TO keep him" is bullshit to me.  We don't owe him dick!  He's played really well for us, and now he's outgrown his monetary cage, so to speak.  We have enough of an issue getting rid of "The Painter", and now we're going to hamstring ourselves again for the next 5 to 7 years with a guy who, in my opinion can only regress.

 

Haven't we fucking learned by now??

 

Listen, I'm no Rhodes scholar here by any stretch, but for fuck sake...we did this with Hank and it doesn't work.  I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks this but, I really feel like we can win a Cup without him...ESPECIALLY if we spend our cap money where it's better suited...

 

I just think there's a better way to apply $12 million, other than pissing it away on one guy, who quite honestly showed us some flashes of his dark side last November-February.  I really think Drury is smarter than that, and I have confidence he will do what he has to do to keep this team competitive for the foreseeable future.

i definitely agree.  But admit that you would reconsider if he went up in the stands and gave us all blowjobs.  

[Albatrosss]

28 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

You can probably live with 10-10.5.

Anymore than that is too much

even $10M is too much for a goalie. 

[jsm7302]

9 minutes ago, Albatrosss said:

even $10M is too much for a goalie. 

You can pay that much for the position but that includes the backup.

 

[Pete]

1 hour ago, LindG1000 said:

It's important to remember that this is where he's starting. Not where he's ending.

 

Zibanejad started at 10, landed at 8.5

Panarin was rumored to be seeking 13, landed at 11.6

Lindgren was rumored to be seeking 5, got 4.5

 

It's not a perfect science, but we never see a player land on their initial ask. We're going to frontload the deal, he's going to be the highest paid goalie for some amount of time, but we can and should expect around a 15% attrition on the number.

 

He'll come in around 10.5. Which, by 2027-28, shouldn't be more than 10% of the cap.

What's the significance of 27-28? Seems of arbitrary season to pick. 

 

They will need cap flexibility way before that. 

[RangersIn7]

35 minutes ago, Albatrosss said:

even $10M is too much for a goalie. 

 

25 minutes ago, jsm7302 said:

You can pay that much for the position but that includes the backup.

 

I see the logic in the point you are making.

 

But he’s their strength. He’s their best player. And he’s the biggest reason for their success as a team and is in his prime.

 

So you have 2 choices. 
 

Trade him now for a package you like… and as others have said, goalies don’t bring back a ton. 
 

Or sign him. 

[Pete]

7 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

 

I see the logic in the point you are making.

 

But he’s their strength. He’s their best player. And he’s the biggest reason for their success as a team and is in his prime.

 

So you have 2 choices. 
 

Trade him now for a package you like… and as others have said, goalies don’t bring back a ton. 
 

Or sign him. 

Teams who have a goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

Teams who pay their goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

You need five or six other exceptions where players are significantly contributing above their pay grade 

 

Conversely, good teams are winning cups with mediocre goalies.

[RangersIn7]

Just now, Pete said:

Teams who have a goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

Teams who pay their goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

You need five or six other exceptions where players are significantly contributing above their pay grade 

 

Conversely, good teams are winning cups with mediocre goalies.

All true.

 

So then trade him, find a replacement, and move forward.

 

Im ok with that. 

[RichieNextel305]

3 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

All true.

 

So then trade him, find a replacement, and move forward.

 

Im ok with that. 

I think we’re beyond Zero Hour in regard to this. If there was ever an actual time to trade him, it was over the summer. Camp is right around the corner. There’s no way they deal him in season. And I find it very unlikely they let him walk as a UFA. I see no way this doesn’t get done eventually. Just have to hope and pray the number is manageable to work around and go from there.

[RangersIn7]

4 minutes ago, Pete said:

Teams who have a goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

Teams who pay their goalie as their best player generally don't win cups. 

 

You need five or six other exceptions where players are significantly contributing above their pay grade 

 

Conversely, good teams are winning cups with mediocre goalies.

Point is… regardless of a whether or not you can get a huge return for him, he still has value. Pretty big value.

 

So you can’t let him walk for nothing.

 

Trade him or sign him and deal with whatever happens out of either way you go.

[LindG1000]

6 minutes ago, Pete said:

What's the significance of 27-28? Seems of arbitrary season to pick. 

 

They will need cap flexibility way before that. 

It's arbitrary - just saying that a few years down the road this is going to be rapidly in line with what top goalies make now. I'm also more of the mind that I just want to use this one year window to win a cup, damn the rest of it, so I don't really care if he signs before the season. The only way I will start to really, really care is if we're floundering at the deadline and find ourselves needing to maximize the return, but that feels unlikely barring injuries.

 

We've known that 25-26 was going to be something of a transitional year since Kreider signed his contract, so we may as well just embrace the uncertainty right now and manage assets the best we can. We've got decisions on Trouba, Panarin, Chytil, and Lindgren coming up in the next 18 months. Kreider and maybe even Zibanejad could be added to that group depending on how this season and next season go. I'm not terribly bothered throwing Shesterkin into that mix if it helps us take this one big swing before we really need to think about restocking the cupboards.

[RangersIn7]

3 minutes ago, RichieNextel305 said:

I think we’re beyond Zero Hour in regard to this. If there was ever an actual time to trade him, it was over the summer. Camp is right around the corner. There’s no way they deal him in season. And I find it very unlikely they let him walk as a UFA. I see no way this doesn’t get done eventually. Just have to hope and pray the number is manageable to work around and go from there.

I feel similarly 

A trade at this point is unlikely. I agree the time to do that was over the summer. And they didn’t.

 

However, I have no idea what the thoughts and feelings are regarding him and the money attached to him are internally. Nor is there stuff out there regarding anything that’s gone on with him and negotiations this summer or how that may have gone. 

 

They may have the thought of, ok, bring him into camp and we will seriously sit down. But if we can’t hammer it out, we can start making calls.

 

Unlikely.

But who knows?

 

It’s most likely they get a deal done. The Rangers organization is not at all unaccustomed to doing these things in season. Have done so many, many times. 

[Sharpshooter]

I get people not wanting to give that much to a goalie, but I fully expect them to give him 12 or 12.5 and he'll be back. lol It's kind of the Rangers way with goaltending. They can develop them, but also become overly reliant on them as a franchise and then pay up and overpay, when you don't really need to for a goalie now.

[phillyb]

Such a double-edged sword. 

You can't pay Igor 12m per season. 

You can't expect this team's defense to play exceptionally in front of a mediocre goalie either. 

[Albatrosss]

33 minutes ago, phillyb said:

Such a double-edged sword. 

You can't pay Igor 12m per season. 

You can't expect this team's defense to play exceptionally in front of a mediocre goalie either. 

exaggerated statement.  Team defense did fine in front of back up goalies.  

[Br4d]

7 hours ago, Sharpshooter said:

Anyone who thought he was getting 10.5 or something was crazy. 10.5 is the absolute floor and a pipedream at that. 12-12.5 is where it's going to be. That's....a lot, especially when you have some other hefty contracts on the books for awhile longer and will need to re-sign Laf as well. I have no idea what goalies will be free agents at the end of this coming season. The pipeline is not that great, or has guys that aren't even ready yet. I don't know why, but I still have a feeling they're going to do it. lol Maybe it was because what happened with Lundqvist, but, man...that's a lot of money tied into goaltending, as great as he is.

 

I think Igor is the best goalie in the NHL at this point in time and he's still in his prime.

 

 

[phillyb]

1 hour ago, Albatrosss said:

exaggerated statement.  Team defense did fine in front of back up goalies.  

that’s true but would you feel comfortable putting this defense in front of Darcy Kuemper every night?

[Pete]

8 minutes ago, phillyb said:

that’s true but would you feel comfortable putting this defense in front of Darcy Kuemper every night?

The point is it's not this defense. It needs to be upgraded because we already know it's not good enough. And it's not just the six guys on the back end who need to be better, defense is a team concept.

 

The point is if you pay him, you have no money to upgrade anywhere. 

 

How do you expect to get better when you're paying the goalie over double what he was making already and you're already cap-strapped?

Edited September 12 by Pete

[Albatrosss]

9 minutes ago, phillyb said:

that’s true but would you feel comfortable putting this defense in front of Darcy Kuemper every night?

yes? 

you can invest into a $6M or max $7M good goalie, not $12M great goalie and you team should be able to defend.  

[Pete]

Since paying their goalie top dollar, Tampa Bay Lightning have...

• Won a Cup (LTIR)
• Lost in final
• Lost in the first round 
• Lost in the first round
• Traded their best D for cap reasons 
• Didn't sign their 40g/PPG/heart and soul captain for Cap reasons 
• Let numerous players walk for Cap reasons

It's just a steady decline when you invest in goaltending and don't have a plethora of players who outperform their contracts. 

Edited September 12 by Pete

[RichieNextel305]

The fact of the matter is this: the only way I see the Rangers moving off giving Shesterkin an extension is if they have it on reasonably good authority that they’re a destination McDavid would consider following ‘25-26. Not even kidding. At this point, this late in the game, it would take something kind of nutty for them to not find middle ground and for them to not move him.

 

 

[Dunny]

He's going to get the mega deal, and it's going to be both a terrible value, and regretful because it's the easy thing to do. That's just how the NHL works. 

[Sod16]

If he's sticking to $12m, there's no need to sign him now, because we should be able to get him for that if we want him after the season.  If he wants to go UFA in the hopes of getting $14m (for one less season), good riddance.

[Br4d]

17 hours ago, RangersIn7 said:

Point is… regardless of a whether or not you can get a huge return for him, he still has value. Pretty big value.

 

So you can’t let him walk for nothing.

 

Trade him or sign him and deal with whatever happens out of either way you go.

 

The Rangers could also wait to see what the season brings this year.  It's not hard to trade Igor if they get off to a weaker start than expected.

[Valriera]

This is and always has been easy which is you capitalize on Igor playing above pay grade while you can and then don’t sign him to 10. He’s the crux of the current window, so hopefully we can take one more run, then it’s rebuilding time for the lafreniere era of the team. 
 

It’s a shame to lose the guy but it’s simple math in that it’s harder to find enough skaters outperforming their contracts to compensate than it is to find a goalie who is good enough to win. 

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

Two of the last four champions had a goalie make 9.5m and 10m but please go on about how it's not possible to win a Cup with a goalie making around 12% of the cap.