Rangers sign Igor Shesterkin to eight-year contract with $11.5 million AAV

The New York Rangers have finally locked up their star goaltender.

According to ESPN reporters Kevin Weekes and Emily Kaplan, the Rangers have locked up Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year contract with a cap hit of $11.5 million.

Shesterkin was in the final year of his four-year contract with a $5,666,667 million cap hit, and was set to become an unrestricted free agency this summer. Some of the details of the negotiation for this contract leaked out into the public, including the fact that Shesterkin was looking for a big pay day and that the Rangers weren’t willing to budge on a certain price point. However, it looks like the Rangers caved in the end, giving Shesterkin the money he wanted.

The contract is the largest in NHL history for a goaltender, totaling $92 million over the course of the 8 years, and will make him the third goalie to have a $10+ million cap hit after Carey Price and Sergei Bobrovsky. He will be tied with William Nylander and Erik Karlsson for the seventh-highest cap hit in the league next season.

There are currently no details regarding any no-move/no-trade clauses or signing bonuses with this contract.

Shesterkin signs the deal as the Rangers have dealt with some struggles this year, but that has come in spite of his performance. Even though he currently has a middling 8-9-1 record, .908% save percentage, and one shutout through 18 games, he is also seventh in the league in goals saved above expected with 9.83.

Shesterkin was a fourth-round pick for the Rangers in the 2014 NHL Draft out of Russia, although he did spend another five seasons there before finally making his pro debut in the 2019-20 season. He played 25 games in the AHL before making his NHL debut, and he never looked back. He’s currently in his sixth season with the Rangers, and his fifth as the starter, and also captured a Vezina Trophy in the 2021-22 season.