The Rangers named a new Director of Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting on Tuesday. Igor Shesterkin and Rangers look to be close to a contract extension, what's the hold up? Are the Rangers done in free agency?
New York Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury announced Tuesday that
John Lilley has been named Director of Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting. Prior to joining the Rangers, Lilley served as Director of Amateur Scouting with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a position he held since 2018. Lilley originally joined the Leafs organization in 2006 as an amateur scout before being promoted to Director of United States Scouting in 2016
Lilley, who like Drury went to BU, though at different times, fills the position previously held by Gordie Clark who held the role from 2007 to 2020. Clark was a Scout and Senior Advisor for the 2020-21 season, and is listed as a Professional Scout on the team’s website. Interesting, that under Clark, the general view was that New York seemed to focus on skilled European players, while since his departure, the team prioritized more physical North American players.
While Lilley ran the Maple Leafs drafts, in his three years in that role, the team drafted 21 players. There was an equally heavy emphasis on European players as North American ones, with 10 picks from Europe, including six from Finland and four from Russia. Six U.S. born players were drafted and five from Canadian junior teams. Looking back on Lilley's drafts, no call can be made on how good or poorly he really did, as he also was hurt by Toronto having had a first round pick only once in that time and only three picks this year, with the first at 57 overall.
Whether the trend to focus on North American players continues under Lilley and the revamped scouting and front office departments will be something to watch.
Word on the street - as seen below from the tweets by Vince Mercogliano and Mollie Walker - is that the
Rangers are close to signing Shesterkin to an extension:
Shesterkin declined to file for arbitration prior to Sunday's deadline, which either meant that the teams were close to an agreement or that he was complating going back to Russia. As Mercogliano reports, Igor and the Blueshirts were getting close on a new contract, with a person close to the situation expecting an average annual value in the range of $5.75 million to $6 million, which will eat up a significant chunk of the approximately $13.6 million in room remaining under the cap. A long-term deal - likely 5-6 years - keeps him in the fold, avoiding a situation where the concern would be that he heads elsewhere, since Shesterkin is two years away from unrestricted free agency.
They firmly believe that Shesterkin is a high-caliber starting goalie, as do many scouts who have followed him since his dominant days in the KHL. He's 26-16-3 across his first two NHL seasons with a 2.59 goals against average and a .921 save percentage, which are very respectable numbers. But a deeper dive paints an even rosier picture
According to Clear Sight Analytics, Shesterkin has the best differential (1.7%) between his expected SV% and actual SV% among goalies who have faced at least 500 chances against in the past two seasons. He ranks ahead of the previous two Vezina Trophy winners, Marc-Andre Fleury and Connor Hellebuyck, who are third and fourth, respectively, with Tuukka Rask second.
Simply put, the 6-foot-2 Russian has shown an impressive knack for making difficult saves when opponents generate quality scoring chances. He's had considerable success against one-timers, rebounds, shots from the slot, odd-man rushes and other high-danger situations
Of course, the counter-argument is that Shesterkin still has a lot to prove. His sample size is relatively small and he's never played more than 35 games in an NHL season. A car accident in early 2020 and a groin strain in March 2021 have limited his ice time, but he returned from the latter in late March, after missing 10 games, and started 16 of the next 20 games and 31 of 56 overall. That represented the heaviest workload of his young career and helped convince the Rangers that he can handle being their undisputed No. 1.
As Walker noted, During his first NHL call-up in 2019-20, Shesterkin missed three games with an ankle injury and then missed the first two games of the qualifying round in the bubble playoffs with a groin issue. Still, Shesterkin has posted a 26-16-3 record with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage since entering the league. His 10 wins in the first 12 NHL games of his career in 2019-20 set high expectations, prompting the potential long-term deal
If the deal was close to being done a few days ago, why is it not signed? I have seen the argument that it might be due to the Rangers waiting on making other moves and don't want to eat up cap room just yet until a deal - Jack Eichel - is done. While that might be true, teams can go 10% above their cap during the summer and only need to be compliant before the season starts, so that should not be the issue. In addition, if you are concerned that New York will be unable to move a player and get below the cap, when there is a will there's a way. Plus, if Eichel is the target, he still needs the surgery and quite likely will not be ready for the start of the season. As such, he can go on LTIR if he will miss three weeks or 10 games, creating a window to make a deal early on if needed.
In answer then to the question of why the deal has not been signed, who knows. Open to other suggestions.
Free agency:
New York has added either via trade or free agency Sammy Blais, Barclay Goodrow, Dryden Hunt, Greg McKegg and Ryan Reaves to the forward crew, subtracting Brett Howden, Pavel Buchnevich and Colin Blackwell. Add in Morgan Barron and that's six players in and three out. Plus, the potential for Eichel or another center, though that likely will come at the expense of Ryan Strome. With the other members of the top-eight - Zib, Panarin, Laf, CK20, Kakko, Chytil and Kravtsov - in place, not much room at the inn for more players.
On defense, Trouba, Miller, Fox and Lindgren return. Patrik Nemeth was brought in to serve as a solid veteran presence to help ease the transition for rookie Nils Lundkvist, who expected to man one-half of the third pairing. Jarred Tinordi is the seventh d-man, providing rugged depth, while prospects such as Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson and Braden Schneider gain experience with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Same as with the forwards, where are you adding one more, save for possible cheap depth that could go to Hartford?
In net, Shesterkin is the starter backed up by Alexandar Georgiev, at least as of now, with Keith Kinkaid as the third. If salary needs to go to make room for a big named player, Georgiev will be one of those considered. I would love to see Henrik Lundqvist, if healthy, brought back if that happens, though that's a heart over head viewpoint. Not many palatable options as a backup, maybe Devan Dubnyk, though that is a lesser option, which could make Kinkaid the backup and Adam Huska, who just signed a one-year, two-way contract, the third.
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