New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin has one year left on his contract, which will pay him slightly north of $5.6 million, but after a playoff performance where he put the Rangers on his back and took them all the way to the Eastern Conference final, the twenty-eight-year-old Russian is due for a substantial raise and a long-term contract to stay with the Rangers moving forward.
However, Shesterkin, who went 10-5-1 with a 2.24 GAA and a .927 save percentage, is taking everything in stride, as is evident by the manner in which he was answering questions during the Rangers media availability day before the team departs for the summer.
Appreciating that goaltenders are a different breed altogether in the sense that they put an awful lot of pressure on themselves when the team is doing well or if they feel like they let the team down, Shesterkin's tongue-in-cheek answer is quite refreshing and really fun as well.
The Rangers should do everything in their power to make sure they are able to keep Shesterkin around for the remainder of his time in the National Hockey League, as he's arguably become the most invaluable piece of the organization. Whether President and General Manager Chris Drury can convince Shesterkin and his camp that he belongs in Manhattan is an entirely different story.
