The New York Rangers are entering their 20th consecutive season of playing in front of an elite goaltender.
Henrik Lundqvist basically walked in off the street in the fall of 2005, grabbed the starting job from Kevin Weekes and held it throughout his 15 NHL seasons. He ended up playing all 887 of his NHL games with the Rangers, setting franchise records for victories (459), shutouts (64) and saves (23,509). He’s also second in NHL history in shootout wins (61).
Ironically, Lundqvist’s departure (after a 2020 buyout, he signed with the Washington Capitals for the 2020-21 season but never played for them because of a heart issue) opened the door for a new generation of elite Rangers goaltending. Igor Shesterkin, who got his feet wet in 2019-20 when he was 10-2-0 as part of a three-man crease (with Alexandar Georgiev and Lundqvist), took over the starting job in 2020-21 and looks like he’ll be a threat to erase some, if not all, of Lundqvist’s records with the Rangers one day.
Lundqvist’s numbers made him an easy choice for the Hockey Hall of Fame; he was elected in 2023, his first year of eligibility. There’s no doubt he’s the greatest goaltender (if not the greatest player) in franchise history. But will that still be true in a decade or so, when Shesterkin calls it a career? He’s already matched a couple of Lundqvist’s accomplishments, though he has yet to get the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Final, which his predecessor did in 2014, losing in five games to the Los Angeles Kings.
In a touch of irony, the two enter the 2024-25 season with the exact same career goals-against average (2.43).
Rangers have 20 years of goalie greatness with Henrik Lundqvist, Igor Shesterkin
So which one will end up as the best goalie in Rangers history? Here’s the case for each.
Henrik Lundqvist
NHL seasons: 15
Games played: 887
W-L-OTL: 459-310-96
Goals-against average: 2.43 Shutouts: 64
“King Henrik” looked like a throwaway pick when he was the 205th player (and 22nd goaltender) taken in the 2000 NHL Draft. Crister Rockstrom, the Rangers top scout in Europe, made the case for selectinh Lundqvist, a fellow Swede whose stock likely fell after he struggled in his last pre-draft tournament.
But the trip from Sweden to Madison Square Garden took five more years. Not until after he was 33-8-3 with Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League during 2004-05, the NHL lockout season, did Lundqvist come to the Rangers. He wasted little time making an impact.
After Weekes, the projected No. 1, was injured in the season’s second game, Lundqvist grabbed the starter’s job and never let it go. He won 31 games, beginning a string of 11 consecutive non-lockout seasons with at least 30 victories, finished third in balloting for the Vezina Trophy for the first of three straight seasons and was voted to the NHL All-Rookie Team.
Lundqvist won the Vezina as the top NHL goalie, in 2011-12, becoming the first Ranger since John Vanbiesbrouck in 1986 to do so. His 1.97 goals-against average was (and still is) the best by a Rangers goaltender since 1939-40. The second-best mark is the 2.05 GAA he posted during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, when he led the NHL in victories for the only time in his career with 24 and was voted a Second-Team All-Star.
Though Lundqvist won no more personal honors, he kept the Rangers among the League’s elite for the next few seasons. He helped them reachthe Stanley Cup Final in 2014, though the Los Angeles Kings won three overtime games on the way to a five-game series victory. With a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round that spring, Lundqvist set an NHL record with his fifth straight Game 7 win.
An injury to a blood vessel in his neck limited Lundqvist to 46 games in 2014-15 but didn’t stop him from another 30-win season — although a 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final kept the Rangers from returning to the Cup Final. He won 35 and 31 games in the next two seasons, getting the Rangers to the playoffs each time.
Though he never won the Stanley Cup, Lundqvist was aces in the postseason. In 130 Stanley Cup Playoff games, he had a 2.30 GAA and .921 save percentage, often playing nail-biter one-goal games. In 2012, when he led the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final for the first of three times in four years, Lundqvist had a sterling 1.82 GAA, .931 save percentage and three shutouts in 20 games.
Though the last three seasons of his career weren’t as productive for Lundqvist or the Rangers, he did reach a number of individual accomplishments during that time. That included earning his 400th and 450th career wins, becoming the only goalie in NHL history to win at least 20 games in each of his first 13 seasons, and finishing with more wins and games played than any other NHL goaltender who played his entire career with one team.
His selection to the Hall of Fame was little more than a formality. As was having his No. 30 retired by the Rangers and raised to the rafters at Madison Square Garden.
Igor Shesterkin
NHL seasons: 5 (and counting)
Games played: 213
W-L-OTL: 135-59-17
Goals-against average: 2.43 Shutouts: 15
Lundqvist’s departure opened the door for Shesterkin, and the young Russian wasted little time skating right through it into the starting job.
One thing the two have in common is that each spent five seasons playing in his home country before coming to New York. In Shesterkin’s case, he was selected in the fourth round of the 2014 draft but didn’t come to North America until 2019. Unlike Lundqvist, he played briefly in the minors (25 games at AHL Hartford, where he was 17-4-5 with a 1.90 goals-against average) before joining the Rangers and winning 10 of 12 decisions (including seven in a row) with a 2.52 GAA and .932 save percentage despite missing time with a broken rib stemming from a car crash. He even started (and lost) Game 3 in the play-in round of the expanded 2020 playoffs after Lundqvist started and lost the first two.
By 2021-22, his first full (non-COVID) season, Shesterkin was the best goalie in the NHL. He won the Vezina with a 36-13-4 record, leading the NHL with a 2.07 GAA and .935 save percentage — the third-best in NHL history by a goaltender who played in at least 50 games (and better than any posted by Lundqvist during his 15 NHL seasons). Shesterkin was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as League MVP. He got the Rangers into the conference final for the first time since 2015.
However, his 2.59 GAA and .929 save percentage weren’t enough to get them past the Lightning, who won the series in six games. He did set a team record in a 4-3 Game 1 loss in the first-round series against Pittsburgh Penguins by making 79 saves, the most by a Rangers goaltender in any game, regular season or playoffs.
Shesterkin continues to pile up wins — 37-13-8 in 2022-23 and 36-17-2 in 2023-24 — earning a spot in the NHL All-Star Game in each season. He’s the sixth goalie in team history to make the All-Star Game in back-to-back seasons; Lundqvist was the fifth.
He was brilliant again in the playoffs this past spring, playing some of the best clutch hockey of his career., leading the Rangers again to the conference final But despite a 2.34 GAA and .927 save percentage, Shesterkin and the Rangers again came up two wins short of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final; they lost to the Florida Panthers in six games. Shesterkin was the main reason the Rangers got as far as they did; Florida outshot them 202-151. In their 16 playoff games, the Rangers were outshot 527-412; opponents had more shots in 11 of the final 12 games. But Shesterkin was the main reason New York went as deep in the playoffs as they did.
So who will end up the greatest goalie in Rangers history?
Shesterkin turns 29 on Dec. 30. By then it’s more than likely he’ll have a new long-term contract that will keep him with the Rangers for the foreseeable future, giving him the opportunity to chase down a lot of Lundqvist’s team records. Like Lundqvist before him, expect Shesterkin’s next contract to be a hefty one that likely takes up a significant percentage of the Rangers salary cap.
Each player has won the Vezina Trophy once, but it’s certainly reasonable to anticipate that Shesterkin could win at least one more during the next decade. Lundqvist earned one other postseason honor (Second-Team All-Star in 2012-13); again, Shesterkin has an excellent chance to pass that total.
Lundqvist got the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final once (2014) and as far as the conference final on two other occasions (2012, 2015). Shesterkin led the Rangers to the conference final twice in the past three seasons; Lundqvist didn’t get there until season No. 7.
Because he spent part of his first season in North America in the minors and had his first two NHL seasons shortened by the coronavirus pandemic, Shesterkin has “just” 135 wins after five seasons; Lundqvist had 177. If he can play 10 more seasons with the Rangers to match Lundqvist’s 15, Shesterkin would need to average about 33 wins a season to surpass his predecessor as the winningest goalie in team history.
Perhaps because Lundqvist was a workhorse — he started 332 games in his first five seasons, compared with Shesterkin’s 208, and played 60 or more games nine times in his career — he lost 110 games in regulation during those first five seasons (and a team-record 310 overall). Shesterkin, who has yet to play more than 58 games in a season, has lost just 59 times in regulation.
One category Shesterkin has some work to do to catch Lundqvist is shutouts. He has 15; Lundqvist had 22 after five seasons and put up 11 more in his sixth. Overtaking him in 10 seasons would mean averaging five shutouts during that span.
Lundqvist owns the Rangers record for both playoff wins (61) and losses (67); Shesterkin is 23-20. Lundqvist has a better goals-against average (2.30 to 2.41), but Shesterkin owns a better save percentage (.928, a team record, to .921).
Lundqvist has set a high bar and already owns a Hall of Fame plaque. However, based on what Shesterkin has shown in the early stages of his career, he appears to have a better-than-even chance of surpassing him as the greatest goalie in Rangers history. To do so, he’ll have to raise his level of play even higher. Another Vezina Trophy or two would help, as would an uptick in shutouts.
But the biggest boost for Shesterkin would be to bring home the Stanley Cup championship that Lundqvist never did. In the words of Fred Shero, “flags fly forever,” and a parade through the Canyon of Heroes would go a long way to help Shesterkin’s case.
