Elsa/Getty Images

Elsa/Getty Images- Raanta

When Henrik Lundqvist went down with a fluke vascular injury last season, all eyes turned to Cam Talbot. A very short time after inking a very reasonable one year, $1.45 million extension, Talbot was thrust into starting duty. After his impressive rookie season as backup to the King, this was his first big test. Long story short, Talbot delivered and the focus began to shift to the ultimate offseason return for the former University of Alabama-Huntsville keeper. Whatever we may think of the value he brought in hindsight, his departure to Edmonton left the Rangers without a reliable backup in the system. Especially in light of Mackenzie Skapski’s injury.

On the very same day Talbot was shipped out to western Canada, the front office turned Ryan Haggerty into Antti Raanta. While a somewhat under-the-radar move, I think everyone assumed the Rangers had found their backup. Raanta had a very short NHL track record (39 career games), but had put up excellent number this past season. At 26 years-old, he was an ideal backup with some upside.

Ten days later, the Blueshirts traded a sixth round pick in the 2017 Draft for Magnus Hellberg of the Nashville Predators, who had played this past season in the AHL. The towering (6’5”) Swede, who was still just 24 years of age, was seen as a depth addition, as the organization waited out Skapski’s recovery.

Fast forward to training camp, and everyone was a bit surprised when Alain Vigneault declared the backup goalie spot “an open battle”. These types of things get thrown around in training camp all the time, and don’t necessarily mean a whole lot, but it does give an indication that the organization likes what it has in Hellberg. So, is this competition a real thing, or just a pre-season narrative? Let’s dive into their games a little.

I’m going to caveat this entire analysis by saying that I haven’t seen nearly enough of either one of these guys to draw definitive conclusions. I am going to make an assessment about their games in a vacuum.

Let’s start with Raanta. Once the trade happened, I started looking for some footage, scouting reports, anything that would give me some perspective into his actual game beyond the stats. There was really nothing out there, so I greatly looked forward to be able to watch him live. It made for an interesting analysis.

I’m sure his game will evolve after working with Benoit Allaire for any period of time, since Allaire loves wide-set stances and deep crease play. Raanta played fairly deep, and had about an average set for his stance, but what struck me was how short his shuffle steps were. For those unfamiliar, when a goalie moves side to side on his skates, it’s called a “shuffle”. These steps are usually about shoulder width at a time, with some variation. Raanta employs very short, very quick shuffles around the crease. He also has a very quick up-and-down game and has a solid foundation and fast, precise butterfly slides when he is in scramble-mode.

Additionally, Raanta has a very calm demeanor in the net, and tracks the puck well. In the admittedly small sample of two half-games, he was rarely out of position and had a good feel for his location in the net.

Kathy Willens/Getty Images

Kathy Willens/Getty Images- Hellberg

Hellberg, on the other hand, while looking very competent, and much faster than I expected, still has some development growth ahead. This is to be expected, as he is a large goaltender under the age of 25. While he has very quick legs, his feet and arms tend to lag behind. His slides are strong and powerful, but he lacks a sense of stability in the butterfly and seems to lock into default situational movements instead of reacting to the play itself. I think that is what Pat Leonard was talking about when he made this brilliant observation. Snark aside, comments like this are what lead to snap-judgment ignorance by the casual fanbase when evaluating goaltenders.

At this point, I feel fairly confident in concluding that the “competition” is just lip service by the coaching staff. At this point, Raanta is clearly the more advanced goaltender. I like Hellberg’s game and skillset quite a bit, but like most bigger goalies, he simply needs more development time. The Rangers appear to have a wealth of goaltending talent in the organization at the moment, after years of “pray the King stays healthy”.

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