Unlike with Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers backup goalies are usually a tad more difficult to grade. However our 2024 Jonathan Quick report card bucks that trend, as the likely Hall of Famer arrived in New York with almost zero expectations and shattered them all with his solid play and essentially transforming his style from athletic and mobile to more steady and reserved, to great success.
Quick’s traditional stats were his best in several years, putting up a 2.62 GAA and a .911 SV%. More importantly, he served as the Rangers “starter” in that blip period while Shesterkin was working on his glove side issues. A backup’s job is to be steady enough to give the starter some rest, and Quick certainly provided the Rangers that luxury.
Funyny enough, the Rangers were far worse in front of Quick than they were in front of Shesterkin. That may be coincidental, but it was interesting nonetheless. Like Shesterkin, Quick outplayed the Rangers at 5v5 and kept them in a lot of games.
It was on the penalty kill where Quick shined, playing well above expectations and his own 5v5 play. The Rangers were far better in front of Quick on the penalty kill than they were with Shesterkin, but again that may be coincidental based on timing.
I don’t believe there is a correlation between the Rangers’ performance in front of Quick versus Shesterkin, it was just interesting to see how it played out.
Quick’s best asset was that he was cheap as he rebounded from two poor seasons. Now he is 50% more expensive and carrying a cap hit over $1.2 million, so he will have far less room for error this coming season. Still, he was a pleasant surprise last year and a key reason why Shesterkin was able to work through his glove side issues in non-game situations first.
2024 Jonathan Quick report card grade: A+
More About:Players