He’s additionally one of many N.H.L.’s greatest gamers at any place. He was named as one of many three finalists for the Hart Trophy for most dear participant through the common season and is nearly assured to be awarded the Vezina Trophy as the most effective goalie. All of the proof voters wanted was his .935 save share and a couple of.07 objectives in opposition to common, each tops within the league.
Shesterkin, 26, was drafted out of Russia by the Rangers within the fourth spherical of the 2014 draft and has match seamlessly right into a line of Rangers goalies stretching again to the early Nineties with Mike Richter, who was adopted, two years after his personal retirement, by Henrik Lundqvist in 2005.
“What a run of goaltenders we now have seen right here with the Rangers,” stated Eddie Olczyk, a TNT analyst and teammate of Richter’s on the final Rangers’ crew to win a Stanley Cup, in 1994. “Goaltending has not been an issue for the Rangers, and when you have got it, you have got an opportunity to win each evening.”
Olczyk stated he spoke to Gallant months in the past about Shesterkin, and the coach raved to him concerning the goalie’s uncanny capability to learn, react and be in the proper place forward of the shot or the cross.
“I don’t assume you hear that fairly often,” Olczyk stated. “He appears to know what’s going to occur earlier than it does. When that occurs, you’re enjoying five-card stud with six playing cards. It’s a reasonably good hand to be enjoying with.”
Lundqvist was like that, too. He was nonetheless a Ranger when Shesterkin made his debut on Jan. 7, 2020. Shesterkin spoke little or no English then, and it was tough for Lundqvist to speak with him in an informal, in-depth method to get a way of who Shesterkin was. However he seen that his new teammate was fairly relaxed and chatty with the opposite Russian-speaking gamers on the Rangers, equivalent to Pavel Buchnevich and Vladislav Namestnikov, each of whom are not on the crew.
Now a Rangers analyst on the MSG Community, Lundqvist stated Shesterkin’s easygoing demeanor was vital to the Russian goalie’s capability to face up to strain and failure — what little of it he has had.
