2025 Rangers Report Card: Jonathan Quick

This post is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Report Cards, grading the performance of each member of the 2024-25 New York Rangers. To view more report cards in this series, go here.

Expectations

When Jonathan Quick arrived on Broadway two seasons ago, fan reaction was mixed. On one hand, the Rangers were getting one of the greatest—if not the greatest—American-born goaltenders in the history of the game, albeit in the twilight of his career. On the other hand, it's Jonathan Quick. The same Jonathan Quick who stifled the Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final on his way to the second of three Stanley Cups in his career. For the Quick skeptics, there was the sentimentality play: Quick grew up in Milford, Conn., cheering for the Rangers and idolizing Mike Richter. It was his chance to don the jersey of his childhood favorite team, and without any significant pressure on his shoulders, since with Igor Shesterkin on the roster, he was never going to need to be "the guy."

Quick was solid in his first year with the Blueshirts, starting 26 games and making one relief appearance, while posting a record of 18-6-2, with a .911 save percentage and a 2.62 goals against average. In year two, the Rangers were looking for more of the same: reliable-enough goaltending when he was called on to spell Shesterkin.

Performance

If you've listened to Blueshirt Bandwidth, you've heard Joe and I talk about how there was a sliding scale of who was more or less accountable and responsible for the Rangers disastrous season. It's the reason we spent a non-insignificant amount of the season arguing over how good (or bad) Igor Shesterkin was. Were his counting stats the best of his career? Certainly not? Was that because he was playing poorly? Not really, no. The catastrophe that was the Rangers defensive system (and, to a great extent, their defensive personnel) played a much bigger role in how many pucks ended up in the back of the net.

Suffice it to say Jonathan Quick is nowhere near the top of the list of players to blame for the 2024-25 New York Rangers' season. Quick started 20 games this season, appearing in another four games in relief. He posted an 11-7-2 record, with a .893 save percentage, a 3.17 goals against average, and three shutouts. He had a -8.29 goals saved above expected and a -0.48 wins above replacement, according to Advanced Hockey Stats.

There’s no sugar-coating it. Those numbers aren’t great. But, two points: 1) you're not asking for Vezenia-level stats from your back-up goaltender, and 2) those numbers say way more about the five-alarm fire of a defense that played in front of him than they do about Jonathan Quick himself. Quick's advanced stats were comparable to Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (-7.52 GSAx), Calgary's Dan Vladar (-7.06 GSAx), Edmonton's Calvin Pickard (8.14 GSAx, and currently saving his team's ass in the playoffs), Utah's Connor Ingram (-8.67 GSAx), and much better than LA's David Rittich (-15.38 GSAx) and Nashville's Jusse Saros (-11.49 GSAx).

If you watched the Rangers this season (and, for reasons mostly owing to original sin, I watched nearly every game), I feel you'd have a hard time coming away from most of those games saying that if not for Jonathan Quick, the Ranger would have won. There were a few games like that, to be sure. But in most, the problem was the team in front of him more than Quick.

Along the way, Quick picked up his 400th career win in a 4-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 2, becoming the first American-born goaltender to hit that mark:

Add to that the numerous stories of Quick being an important veteran presence in the locker room, and taking some of the younger guys under his wing, in particular Matt Rempe, who lived with Quick and his family and, famously, caught frogs with Quick's kids.

Quick inked a 1-year extension with the Rangers on March 12, locking him in for one more year at $1.55 million. It will almost certainly be his last contract in the National Hockey League, with Quick turning 40-years-old this upcoming season and with Dylan Garand proving with the Hartford Wolf Pack that he's ready to for an NHL assignment.

Jonathan Quick is a legend. At 39-years-old he's no longer being asked to be the guy. That's good, but he's clearly not up for that anymore. But as a back-up who provides important veteran leadership? He's just fine.

Grades

Author Grade: B

Banter Consensus: B+

Final Evaluation

It was, statistically, not the best year for Jonathan Quick. There's no denying that. But it was also, statistically and otherwise, among the worst possible years for the entirety of this New York Rangers team. When you have a guy like Igor Shesterkin soaking up 60-some starts in a season, you don't need the same level of goaltending that you would from a timeshare tandem in net. And, when you account for the disaster that was the rest of the team in front of him, it's hard to lay much of the blame at Quick's feet.

This coming season will likely be a farewell tour for Quick. One of the legends of NHL goaltending is winding down his career with the Rangers, living out his childhood dream of putting on the jersey of the team he cheered for. Rangers fans should enjoy it while it lasts.