The contract
The New York Rangers sign goalie Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year contract extension with a $11.5 million AAV.
Shayna Goldman: Goalie contracts can be the trickiest to navigate because it’s the position most of us know the least about and the one with the most volatility.
Goaltending is unpredictable on a good day, let alone as a goaltender ages. So committing eight years to any goalie can be a big ask. Signing this big of a long-term contract is even more daring.
But with Igor Shesterkin, that can be a bet worth taking because he is the best in the world right now and the Rangers’ Stanley Cup hopes rest on him. His body of work in the regular season has been elite. Even when he has slipped, like during last year’s regular season, he still rebounded to impressive heights before thriving in a playoff environment.
Teams tend to pay their most valuable players a lot — Auston Matthews was signed to a $13.3 million cap hit last year, Nathan MacKinnon is at $12.6 million and Connor McDavid is going to push things even further next year. Goaltenders usually don’t reach those heights, and when they do, trouble often follows.
Just look at the Sergei Bobrovsky contract that was maligned before he hit his postseason stride in 2023 (and won the Cup in 2024). That was worth 12.3 percent of Florida’s salary cap in Year 1. That’s why contracts such as Connor Hellebuyck’s (seven years at $8.5 million AAV) can be more digestible. But recent shifts in the goalie market do support the idea of someone of Shesterkin’s caliber getting closer to what they’re worth.
Jeremy Swayman was paid like a top-five goalie in October, despite not having the track record of some of the best in the world, such as Andrei Vasilevskiy. He didn’t even have a full year of experience as a true No. 1 goalie when he signed that contract. Age is the other difference between him and Shesterkin. Swayman’s deal covers ages 25 to 33, as compared to Shesterkin’s 29 to 37, which carries a lot more risk.
Swayman and Jake Oettinger are reminders of what very good No. 1 goalies are worth. And that adds more support to the idea that those in the next tier — such as Shesterkin, who came in as the best in this year’s Player Tiers — are worth a lot more. He is the exception to the rule that goaltenders shouldn’t be paid like a team’s MVP.
If the 2025-26 salary cap rises to the current projected mark of $92.5 million, this contract will be worth 12.4 percent of the Rangers’ cap in Year 1, which is a shade above Henrik Lundqvist’s cap-hit percentage of 12.3 in 2014-15.
It isn’t a question of whether Shesterkin is worth $11.5 million right now; it’s how this deal will age. Long-term deals are risky at any position, especially for goalies, and that’s what lowers this contract grade. But the fact that the Rangers were able to keep the AAV below $12 million gives him a better chance of playing up to this value in those later years.
Contract grade: B-plus
Fit grade: A
James Mirtle: I’m on the record as not loving big goalie contracts. Far too often, they blow up in the team’s face, especially toward the back end.
For a few reasons, however, Shesterkin is a special case.
1. Over the past four seasons, he has clearly established himself as one of the two best goalies in the NHL, with a decent gap between himself, Hellebuyck and everyone else. Shesterkin has consistently stayed in that upper tier, too, placing first, fifth, 14th and seventh (this season so far) in goals saved above expected.
Unlike many goalies whose performance varies widely from year to year, and who don’t provide enough value over a league-average netminder you could pick up in free agency for less, there’s significant value added, given how irreplaceable Shesterkin has been.
2. Shesterkin is not that old. Carey Price’s landmark contract, the previous record for AAV, started when he was 31. Same for Bobrovsky, the current owner of the second highest AAV, and Hellebuyck, whose seven-year, $8.5 million deal began this season.
Shesterkin is 28, which means beginning next year, the Rangers will be buying two more premium seasons (age 29 and 30 years) than a lot of the other marquee goalies who have signed for big money. That matters, as he’ll be 36 entering the final season of the deal, an age at which he can plausibly still be a No. 1. And by then, the cap will be eight bajillion dollars anyway. Speaking of which …
3. The cap is going way up. Perhaps $11.5 million sounds like a small fortune, but against a $97 million cap, it’s only 11.8 percent of the ceiling. When Price signed his deal, it was 13.2 percent. Bobrovsky’s was 12.3 percent. Even Vasilevskiy’s contract, which he signed after being a starter for only three seasons, was 11.7 percent of the cap.
Yes, Hellebuyck took a discount in Winnipeg, but in general, Shesterkin’s deal is in the right ballpark for a goalie among the game’s elite.
The other thing to factor in is where the Rangers are in their timeline. While they have some promising young talent, Artemi Panarin is 33 years old and has one year left on his deal. They’re supposed to be in win-now mode, and the only reason they’re still in playoff position right now is the play of their goaltenders.
Playing chicken with Shesterkin and agent Maxim Moliver and letting them get close to free agency, where so many mediocre teams are going to have acres of cap space, made no sense for New York.
Betting on your MVP does, even if there’s going to be risk here in the back half of this deal.
Contract grade: B-minus
Fit grade: A
(Photo of Igor Shesterkin: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
