Rangers Sign Igor Shesterkin To Eight-Year Extension
Saturday: The Rangers officially announced that they’ve signed Shesterkin to an eight-year extension. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds that the deal contains a full no-move clause and $85MM of the contract will be paid in the form of signing bonuses.
Friday: The New York Rangers have used their new-found cap space relatively quickly. ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports the Rangers have signed goaltender Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year extension paying the netminder between $11.5MM and $12MM a year. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed it will be an eight-year, $92MM extension for Shesterkin.
Once the deal is finalized it will usurp Carey Price‘s record-breaking eight-year, $84MM extension with the Montreal Canadiens by $8MM. Shesterkin and his camp have been adamant about setting the market for goaltenders and he appears to have done just that.
New York will get Shesterkin back on a cheaper deal than Price from a certain point of view. Price’s contract accounted for 13.2% of the cap when it took effect starting in the 2018-19 season. Shesterkin’s contract, assuming the reports are accurate on an $11.5MM salary, will only account for 12.4% of the cap should it rise to the reported $92.5MM for the 2025-26 season.
The Moscow, Russia native landed his desired salary despite having a depressed season compared to the rest of his career. He’s produced an 8-9-1 record in 18 starts for the Rangers with a .908 save percentage and a 3.05 goals-against average.
It’s difficult to disagree with the price point. He’s arguably been one of the league’s top netminders since the 2020-21 season and the Rangers are now rewarding him for his efforts. He took over as the Rangers starting goaltender in the 2021-22 season and the team has failed to miss the playoffs since.
His career records speak for themselves. Shesterkin boasts a career winning percentage of 63.2%, a .920 SV%, and a 2.48 GAA over 226 career starts. The only goalie to post even similar numbers to Shesterkin through their first six seasons is fellow top-netminder Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets. 
New York’s competitive window begins and ends between the pipes with Shesterkin. He’s produced tremendous value for the Rangers over the last six campaigns and will now continue to do so for the next eight beyond this season. The eight-year extension will take Shesterkin to the 2032-33 NHL season when he will be 38 years old.
If today is any indication, the Rangers will be a very active team up to the 2025 NHL trade deadline. General manager Chris Drury will likely pivot toward extending his young crop of expiring talent including Kaapo Kakko, K’Andre Miller, and William Cuylle over the next few weeks so the pieces are in place for the team’s future.
Still, Drury and the Rangers are focused on moving out high-priced veteran talent such as Chris Kreider to create serious change toward the top of the lineup. New York has failed to make it beyond the Eastern Conference Final since the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs despite consistently being one of the better teams throughout the regular season. Drury has been aggressive in his pursuit of re-tooling the roster and today’s moves may only be the beginning.
Photo courtesy of USA Sports images.
Injury Updates: Faulk, Thomas, Red Wings, Vaakanainen
The Blues will welcome back a key blueliner tonight against Edmonton. Team reporter Chris Pinkert reports that Justin Faulk will return to the lineup after missing the last two games due to an upper-body injury. The 32-year-old has been more limited than usual offensively over the first couple of months as he has just one goal and six assists so far in 25 games. However, Faulk is carrying a big workload, averaging a team-high 23:26 per night, his highest ATOI since the shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- The Kings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated forward Akil Thomas off injured reserve. The 24-year-old had missed the last week due to an undisclosed injury. Thomas has been limited to just ten games so far in his first full NHL season and has a goal and an assist while logging a little more than 11 minutes a night of playing time. Los Angeles had two open roster spots so no corresponding move was needed to bring Thomas back to the active roster.
- The Red Wings won’t have goaltenders Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon available for a little while longer. MLive’s Ansar Khan relays (Twitter link) that the netminders will likely miss the next two games as they continue to deal with lower-body injuries. Talbot has posted an impressive .915 SV% in 15 games in his first season with Detroit while Lyon is only a few points lower at .911 in his first nine outings. Ville Husso will continue to serve as the starter for the time being while prospect Sebastian Cossa is back with the team after being papered down on Friday for cap reasons and will serve as Husso’s backup.
- New Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen took part in the team’s optional practice today in a non-contact jersey, notes NHL.com’s Dan Rosen (Twitter link). The 25-year-old has missed more than three weeks with an upper-body injury and is still likely a few games away from being cleared to return. Vaakanainen has played in just five games so far this season, those coming with Anaheim before being part of yesterday’s Jacob Trouba trade.
Brendan Lemieux Clears Unconditional Waivers
Saturday: Lemieux has cleared waivers, reports James Mirtle of The Athletic. In the team’s announcement of his waiver placement yesterday, GM Eric Tulsky indicated that Lemieux requested the release to pursue a new opportunity. A report from Puck Empire in Switzerland suggests that Lemieux is likely to sign with HC Davos of the Swiss NL.
Friday: The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to place forward Brendan Lemieux on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Lemieux signed a one-year, league-minimum contract in Carolina this summer but has spent the entirety of the early season in the minor leagues. He has just two goals, 30 penalty minutes, and a -4 through 12 AHL games this season. He’s the lowest-scoring forward among Chicago Wolves with 10 or more games this season.
Lemieux made a name for himself as a sharp-edged bruiser with the drive to play at the NHL level. That’s what kept him in the top league from 2017 to 2024 – through trips with the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, and Carolina. He served a fourth-line role at every stop, making more noise with his penalty minutes than his scoring. Lemieux has 548 penalty minutes through 307 career games, with his statement year coming in 2019-20 – when he posted 111 PIMs in 59 games with the Rangers. He’s only added 74 career points – 36 goals and 38 assists – in those outings, with 18 points in 2019-20 also standing as a career-high.
This season marks Lemieux’s second in the Carolina organization, after playing through last year on a separate one-year contract. He earned 32 games on the deal, recording five points and 64 penalty minutes. That wasn’t enough to stick in the Hurricanes’ lineup with the emergence of top youngsters Jack Drury and Jackson Blake, pushing Lemieux to the minor leagues this season – his first time playing AHL hockey since 2017-18. With both scoring and meaningful penalties hard to come by this year, Lemieux will now look forward to more productive minutes in his next landing spot.
Maple Leafs Activate Max Pacioretty, Place Jake McCabe On IR
The Maple Leafs have made a pair of roster moves heading into tonight’s game against Pittsburgh. The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Max Pacioretty has been activated from LTIR. To make room on the roster, blueliner Jake McCabe was placed on IR retroactive to November 30th.
Pacioretty will wind up missing only the minimum of 10 games since his placement last month when he sustained a lower-body injury against Montreal. The 36-year-old has been limited to just 13 games so far in his first season with Toronto. However, he has been relatively productive in those outings, collecting four goals and two assists despite averaging just 12:11 of playing time per night, a career low.
Pacioretty has already reached the first half of his $626,230 bonus pool when he played in his tenth game of the season early last month. He needs to get to 35 to collect the other half of it so he’ll be looking to stay healthy the rest of the way.
As for McCabe, he has missed the last week due to an upper-body injury sustained against Tampa Bay at the end of November. Thanks to the retroactive placement, he has already missed the required seven days and thus is eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return.
After putting up a career-high 28 points last season, the 31-year-old earned a five-year, $23.5MM extension back in late October. However, he has been a bit quieter offensively so far this season, collecting just five assists through his first 23 games although he’s averaging a career-best 21:20 in playing time. After being a frequent healthy scratch early on, Philippe Myers has played the last three games in McCabe’s absence.
Avalanche Activate Ross Colton, Place Jonathan Drouin On IR
The Avalanche will welcome back an important forward tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Ross Colton has been activated off LTIR. To make room for him on the active roster, winger Jonathan Drouin has been moved to injured reserve retroactive to November 23rd.
Colton will make his return versus Detroit tonight after missing the last 17 games. The 28-year-old was shifted to LTIR earlier this week but since it was retroactive to late October when he first sustained his foot injury, he has already missed the required 10 games and 24 days to return to the lineup.
Before being injured, Colton was off to a hot start with eight goals and an assist while logging 18:38 per game, more than five minutes higher than his career average ATOI. He’s expected to start on the second line but head coach Jared Bednar has indicated that he wants to move Colton onto the top line in the near future.
As for Drouin, he has missed the last two weeks due to an upper-body injury but has been skating in recent days. The retroactive placement for him means he’s already missed the required seven days to return to the lineup so as soon as he’s cleared by team doctors, he can be activated.
His second season with the Avs hasn’t gone as well as his first. After putting up 19 goals and 37 assists for a career-best 56 points in 2023-24, Drouin’s upper-body injury troubles have limited him to just five games so far. While he has been relatively productive in those with two goals and two assists, this certainly hasn’t been the start to the season he has wanted, especially with it being another contract year after inking a one-year, $2.5MM deal to return to the Avs in free agency back in the summer.
Blue Jackets Open Extension Talks With Mathieu Olivier
Rugged winger Mathieu Olivier is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time this summer. However, it appears he’s open to remaining in Columbus as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that Olivier’s camp and the Blue Jackets have engaged in preliminary discussions about a contract extension.
The 27-year-old is in his sixth NHL season and over the first five, he rightly earned a reputation as a typical fourth-line pugilist. While he chipped in a bit more offensively after being acquired by Columbus back in 2022, his career-high in goals heading into this season was only five.
However, Olivier has found another gear offensively in 2024-25. He already has eight tallies through the first 26 games of the season and while his 25.8 shooting percentage is certainly bound to come down, there’s a good chance he’ll pass the double-digit mark in that regard while also eclipsing his previous best for points (15 set back in 2022-23). On top of that, Olivier is also seeing a bit more shorthanded action per game, logging a little under a minute a night on average, helping boost his overall ATOI past 13 minutes a night, another benchmark.
Heading into the season, it looked like Olivier might be in line for a small raise on his current $1.1MM price tag, potentially landing him in the $1.25MM to $1.5MM range on a multi-year deal. Now, while his current start is likely unsustainable, it wouldn’t be shocking to see his new AAV start with a two. Though that’s a higher price to pay for someone who is arguably best suited as a fourth liner, the Blue Jackets could certainly afford to pay a premium for Olivier’s services in the short term with the team having less than $47MM on the books for 2025-26, per PuckPedia. We’ll see in the coming weeks if the two sides can find common ground on a deal to keep him in Columbus for the foreseeable future.
East Notes: Canadiens, Guhle, Senators, Robertson
While the Canadiens sit in the basement of the Atlantic Division once again and are speculated to be likely to move out more veterans, Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette argues that Montreal might be better off retaining two in particular, defenseman Mike Matheson and center Jake Evans. Matheson has one more year left on his contract at an affordable $4.875MM and had 15 points in 24 games so far this season after finishing in the top ten in scoring among NHL defenders in 2023-24. But with Lane Hutson impressing early on, some have wondered if he’d be available.
As for Evans, the 28-year-old is off to a career-best start with five goals and nine assists through 26 outings while logging 16 minutes a game while leading all NHL forwards in shorthanded ice time. A pending unrestricted free agent, he could conceivably double his current $1.7MM price tag on the open market. With his low cost this season, Evans could be one of the Canadiens’ better trade chips but Cowan suggests that he and Matheson might be the right types of veterans to keep around as Montreal tries to emerge from its rebuild in the coming seasons.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- Still with Montreal, Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle missed Thursday’s game against Nashville due to illness. However, TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that indications are that the 22-year-old will return to the lineup tonight. Guhle has recorded six points, 48 blocks, and 26 hits in 20 games so far while averaging a career-best 21:34 per night.
- While the Senators may have had cursory discussions about acquiring Jacob Trouba, those talks wouldn’t have gone far, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The veteran blueliner made it known that he had no interest in playing for a Canadian-based team which also took Montreal, a speculative landing spot with former Ranger GM Jeff Gorton in the front office, off the table. Trouba eventually accepted a deal to Anaheim on Friday.
- After being recalled yesterday, the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Matthew Robertson has been re-assigned to AHL Hartford. The 23-year-old hasn’t made his NHL debut just yet but has started well with the Wolf Pack this season, notching eight points in 19 games so far. New York is now down to just six healthy blueliners on its roster so this could be a case of Robertson (or someone else) being brought up on game days to serve as a seventh option for the time being.
Poll: Which Team Will Win The 4 Nations Face-Off?
We are nearly two months away from the start of the 4 Nations Face-Off. NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States will compete in the best-on-best matchup for an in-season tournament from February 12 through 20th, 2025. Rosters were recently released on December 4th and each country has a reason to be optimistic about their chances.
Canada objectively has the most star power on their roster and it’s not close. Most teams have trouble dealing with Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid on any given night and he’ll now be joined by the likes of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner, and Cale Makar, among others, in the lineup. The only question mark for Team Canada will be in the crease as the combination of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Sam Montembeault have only combined for an approximated .900 SV% for their respective clubs this season.
One team’s weakness is another team’s strength. The United States will deploy the trio of Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, and Jeremy Swayman in the net giving them an automatic chance to win every game. Team USA should be able to spread the wealth on offense by separating the trio of Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, and Kyle Connor onto their lines and allowing the puck-movers on defense to lead from the blue line. There were some notable absences from Team USA’s eventual roster but it’s tough to count them out of any game with their impressive conglomeration of netminders.
Team Sweden won’t have nearly the same star power on offense as their North American counterparts but does arguably have the tournament’s best blue line. Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Rasmus Andersson, and Rasmus Dahlin are more than capable puck-moving defensive while Mattias Ekholm, Gustav Forsling, and Jonas Brodin are some of the best shutdown defensemen in the league. Sweden’s success in this tournament will be directly correlated with their defensive core.
Rounding out the group is Team Finland who will be bringing one of the stingiest groups to Montreal and Boston. Finland’s success will be connected to how well they can keep games close between their respective counterparts. Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, and Mikko Rantanen will be relied upon for most of Finland’s offense. Opposing teams will run into annoyance with Finland, having to beat Juuse Saros after getting through a staunch defense.
The rosters can and likely will change based on the health and availability of players heading into the tournament but the final group will look similar to how they are constructed today. Now the crystal ball is being passed to you — who do you think will win the 4 Nations Face-Off in February? Vote below!
Mathew Barzal, Anthony Duclair Close To Returning For Islanders
The 2024-25 NHL season hasn’t gone as planned for the New York Islanders. They are the only team in the Eastern Conference unable to amass double-digit win totals in the regular season and sit three points back of the last wild-card position with three more games played.
Some blame can be placed on New York’s inability to stay healthy this season. Defenseman Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly are currently positioned on the team’s injured reserve and forwards Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair are on the team’s long-term injured reserve. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News shares that things are about to change with the two latter players.
Rosner writes that Barzal has finally resumed skating for the Islanders after missing his 17th straight game a few nights ago. New York’s most talented player has been dealing with an upper-body injury since late October after blocking a shot from Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward Yegor Chinakhov. Likewise, Duclair has been skating for the last few weeks and should be activated from LTIR before Barzal.
The two have missed a combined 39 games for the Islanders this season and their offense has struggled in their absence. New York has typically hovered around three goals per game since the 2018-19 season but has now fallen to last in the Eastern Conference with a 2.48 GF/G average.
Barzal wasn’t a game-changing threat when healthy this season scoring two goals and five points through his first 10 games. His absence was felt elsewhere though as teammate Bo Horvat has lost nearly all goal-scoring touch without his typical linemate. Horvat scored three goals in 10 games with Barzal and has only two scored two goals in the 17 subsequent games without him.
Duclair’s absence has also aided in the offense’s stalling out. He’s typically a surefire bet to score 25 goals when healthy and potted two in his first five games with the Islanders. Furthermore, New York’s powerplay has dropped to 31st in the league with an 11.84% success rate with the man advantage.
The Islanders still have 55 remaining games to recover the season and there should be growing optimism with Barzal and Duclair’s return on the horizon. It’s difficult to imagine New York qualifying for the playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons if their offense doesn’t recover from the dismal start.
Pacific Notes: Stone, Smith, Gourde, Parekh
As expected, the Golden Knights will welcome back winger Mark Stone to their lineup tonight, notes Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The 32-year-old wound up missing 14 games overall due to a pulled muscle, stalling what was a very strong start to his season. Stone had six goals and 15 assists in 13 games prior to the injury, putting him among Vegas’ top scorers along with linemate Jack Eichel. With them being off for five days after this game, this is a good chance to test him while ensuring he’ll have ample time off to make sure he’s fully healthy. Prior to his activation, the Golden Knights had two active roster spots so no corresponding transaction needed to be made.
More from the Pacific:
- Sharks center Will Smith is listed as a game-time decision for Saturday’s game versus Florida, relays Max Miller of The Hockey News. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky indicated that the rookie is dealing with an upper-body injury but wasn’t sure when it happened. Smith is off to a decent start to his NHL career, posting five goals and six assists while averaging a little over 14 minutes a night as San Jose tries to ease him in to an extent.
- Kraken center Yanni Gourde missed tonight’s game versus New Jersey with an undisclosed injury, per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale (Twitter link). The 32-year-old has four goals and eight assists in 27 games so far while averaging just 15:29 per night, his lowest ATOI since the 2019-20 campaign when he was with Tampa Bay. Gourde missed the final 17 minutes of action on Thursday night while the injury is not believed to be a long-term issue.
- Flames prospect Zayne Parekh has been added to Canada’s World Junior camp roster as first reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie (Twitter link). Calgary drafted the blueliner ninth overall back in June following a dominant showing with OHL Saginaw that saw him record 33 goals and 63 assists in 66 games. He’s at a slightly lesser pace this season but still has eight goals and 22 helpers in 23 appearances. Parekh will take the place of Penguins prospect Harrison Brunicke who was initially named to the camp roster but won’t be able to participate due to injury.