2019-2020 New York Rangers Season Preview: Goalies
To conclude the positional part of the season preview stories, we’ll be hitting the goalies.
The King
Henrik Lundqvist — To the horror of the dozen Facebook Heroes who spend their every living moment crying about Lundqvist’s existence, the King will return for his 15th season in the NHL.
This year is going to be an interesting one for Ranger goalies, now that Lundqvist, Alexandar Georgiev, and Igor Shesterkin are in the fold things will get interesting. In an interview with The Athletic, David Quinn mentioned the fact that very few goalies in the NHL get the 65-70-game workload anymore. Lundqvist himself started 69, 72, 70, and 72 games, respectively, from 2006 through 2010.
Last year Lundqvist manned the pipes for 52 games, a number that was slightly diminished by the Rangers’ place in the standings and Goergiev getting 10 starts the final month of the season for a longer look. That said, I would expect Lundqvist to be in a similar place in terms of starts this year, especially with two guys the Rangers might want to get looks at as the year goes on.
Lundqvist isn’t the goalie he was five years ago, and that’s fine. Last year’s numbers were still respectable when you consider what was in front of him and his head-space. You can’t give Mats Zuccarello a pass for his mental confidence being taken away and blame Hank for the same thing. It can’t work like that. This year the Rangers should be in the playoff hunt — or at least should look like they’re in the playoff hunt — and that will do wonders for Lundqvist.
It All Looked So Good
Alexandar Georgiev — Georgiev did a lot of impressive things last year, putting up good numbers for a team that had very little defensive aspirations in front of him. He ended up becoming the team’s defacto “starter” as the season drew to a close. There’s reason to believe Georgiev has what it takes to be a legit NHL starting goalie — remember there are few guarantees because goalies are voodoo. Georgiev got the long look that he deserved, and by all accounts the coaching staff liked what they saw. When Quinn talks about limiting Lundqvist’s starts above, he does so with Georgiev in mind. The hope is he has just as good of a year this season if not better.
The problem for Georgiev is the timing of things. Lundqvist will be around for another two years (including this year), and Shesterkin, who has resume full of professional experience in the second-best hockey league in the world, is nipping at his heels. Georgiev has to be feeling the heat. The Rangers won’t be able to do this year’s “you get AHL time” with Shesterkin again unless things take a dark turn no one is expecting. That means we’re going to have to get a pretty firm answer on what you’re going to do with these three by next season, unless something dramatic happens.
The Heir Apparent
Igor Shesterkin — Say what you want about Georgiev, Shesterkin is the heir to the throne. At least on paper.
Putting up unprecedented numbers in the KHL — albeit for a super team, but still — Shesterkin will have some culture shock coming over to a team that isn’t half as competent defensively as what he was used to at SKA. Some of that was on display in Traverse City where Skesterkin was routinely bombarded with odd-man rushes, drawing the ire of a fanbase that apparently still hasn’t learned demanding perfection from a goaltender isn’t the best idea in the world.
In terms of Shesterkin, he’s the reason why this three-headed dragon isn’t going to go away. My understanding of his “European out clause” is that it either doesn’t kick in until year two (the way Yegor Rykov’s does) or there’s a handshake agreement that the clause doesn’t impact this year since there is an expectation he needs to season a bit in North America in the AHL. Either way, Shesterkin should get a few NHL looks this year, and I’m ready for it.
