New York Rangers Star Goalie To Reach Hernrik Lundqvist's Level Of Greatness: Time Will Tell
Photo credit: Sporting News
The New York Rangers have been lucky enough to have two elite goaltenders back-to-back. Once Henrik Lundqvist retired, the team had Igor Shesterkin waiting in the wings, as the Rangers never missed a beat in the crease. Could Igor Shesterkin come close to surpassing any of King Hank's records?
With the training camps in sight, the NHL preseason slowly begins as rookies practice, and veterans get ready to prep for the year.
With the New York Rangers, one rookie who took the team by storm was Igor Shesterkin after taking over the crease from Henrik Lundqvist.
Shesterkin is poised to be the answer in the net for the Rangers for the next eight years and could be the one to challenge all of King Hank's records.
Igor Shesterkin's Mentor, Henrik Lundqvist's Record
Henrik Lundqvist's records could be broken, as Shesterkin, the goalie he mentored, should ideally be better than his predecessor.
Henrik Lundqvist holds a number of Rangers goaltending records. He has the most wins (459), shutouts (64), time-on-ice (51,816:51), and saves (23,509). There are not many categories that don't feature "King Henrik" at the top of the list. There's one in particular that Hank doesn't have, but we can get to that later.
If Henrik Lundqvist had stayed healthy, would Igor Shesterkin realistically have been able to break any of these? In a full rebuild, nonetheless.
Currently, "The Prince" has 162 career wins with 21 shutouts. He has also been on the ice for 15,932:08 minutes and has made 7,439 saves. There is still a large gap between him and Lundqvist, but if he can keep the pace that he is at already, he could get there.
For him to close the gap between himself and Lundqvist, he'll have to stay consistent and win 30 games a year plus 3 shutouts per season.
His career total could be 462 wins and 51 shutouts if he is able to maintain that pace, but it would still be behind King Hank.
Though it seems he could beat a Mike Richter record, in non-Lundqvist-related subjects:
One non-Lundqvist record that would be worth looking at is wins in a single season, as that is currently set at 42 wins which was achieved during the 1993-94 season by Mike Richter. Shesterkin's current career-high in wins is 37, and he's also had two seasons in which he won 36 games. The most Lundqvist ever had in a single season was 39, and it will be interesting to see if there's a season coming up where Igor has a chance to win 43 games to earn a record for himself.
For Igor, he'll have to have a great surrounding cast to even come close to beating Henrik Lundqvist in the New York Rangers record books.
That all depends on GM Chris Drury's ability to build a solid roster behind the true foundation of the team.
Previously on NYRangersInsider
| POLL | ||
AOUT 19 | 75 ANSWERS New York Rangers Star Goalie To Reach Hernrik Lundqvist's Level Of Greatness: Time Will Tell Do you think goalie Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers will beat retired goalie Henrik Lundqvist's records? | ||
| Yes | 37 | 49.3 % |
| No | 38 | 50.7 % |
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