Any doubt that Igor Shesterkin was the goalie of the future was put to rest this season, which makes his report card relatively easy to write. Initially in a 50-50 split with Alex Georgiev, Shesterkin took the reins by force with far superior play. That’s no slight to Georgiev, it’s a compliment to Shesterkin. Shesty followed up his strong 12-game stint last season with a solid .916 SV% and 2.62 GAA in 35 games this season. Interestingly enough, Shesterkin only had two shutouts.
Shesterkin had much better numbers before the final two weeks of the season. During those final eight games of the season, when the Rangers were mostly injured and playing half the Hartford Wolf Pack, Shesterkin posted a rough .847 SV% as the play on the ice deteriorated and the front office drama took center stage.
Shesterkin was calm and collected in net, with very few jerky and sudden movements. The calm demeanor in net is very similar to what we saw from Henrik Lundqvist. Both always seemed to read the play well and be in position before the shot got off.
Some shorthanded struggles
At even strength, Shesterkin far outperformed the team’s expected performance. Team quality will always impact goaltending, and these metrics attempt to isolate goaltender impact from the team impacts. It shows that at even strength, Shesterkin was easily a net-positive on the ice.
Shorthanded, however, Shesterkin appeared to struggle. This is rather interesting and something to keep an eye out for. This should improve over time. Where we’d like to blame the team, again these are meant to isolate goaltender performance, so there is some work to be done with Shesterkin.
When grading Shesterkin, the penalty killing impacts can’t be ignored. It is worth noting that this is only 165 minutes of shorthanded time though. Either way, Shesterkin is clearly the starter going forward. How spoiled are we, as Ranger fans, to go from Lundqvist to Shesterkin?
Igor Shesterkin 2021 Report Card Grade: A-
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