How the Rangers should handle Igor Shesterkins contract offer from here
I have read the various analyses of why it is so risky to grant goaltenders lavish, long-term cap-busting contracts such as the one Igor Shesterkin is seeking, and they all make perfect sense.As well, there seems to be an immediate consensus that the eight-year, $66 million deal struck recently between the Bruins and 25-year-old Jeremy Swayman that carries an annual $8.25M cap charge should serve as the template for goaltenders.But here’s the thing: None of this applies in this case.The Rangers have already crossed the Rubicon.
Ownership, management, GM Chris Drury, they have already gone to eight years and $88 million, as The Post has confirmed.The Rangers are not attempting to limit the term to six years that would take Shesterkin through his age-34 season.They are not nickel-and-diming the goaltender, unless you want to tally the amount of nickels and dimes that amount to the sum of the offer. Management has taken the philosophical leap.
Unless I am missing something, they want their franchise goaltender to be their franchise goaltender.And after talking to enough folks these last couple of days I do not believe Drury or the Rangers were the source of the leak that prompted ESPN’s Kevin Weekes report of the offer.As I wrote for Wednesday’s print edition, this has never been Drury’s style.
The leak does not benefit the team.In reality, it benefits no one.
It introduces controversy on the doorstep of the opener that the organization would never invite.Regarding Swayman, remember that he had a Dec.1 deadline with which to meet or he would not have been able to play in the NHL this season.
Shesterkin is under contract, and a contract under which the team’s most important player — and best player in the last three playoffs by leaps and bounds — has been the Blueshirts’ sixth highest-paid player.This is only about dollars, now.Let me amend that.
It is only about dollars for the Rangers.But if it is about philosophy for Shesterkin and his camp to...