NHL rumblings: How high will Rangers go on Shesterkin? Plus latest on Kessel, Swayman, Ullmark, more

One of the most fascinating negotiations to follow in the NHL this year will be between the New York Rangers and star goalie Igor Shesterkin.

And not just for the obvious reasons that the Rangers desperately want to keep the goalie who many feel is the best in the world.

The pending unrestricted free agent, 28, will put a spotlight on a position that’s been under duress financially for a few years now.

Shesterkin’s camp, led by agents Rick Komarow and Maxim Moliver, appears to want to change that. I say “appears” because they’ve declined comment, but in making a few other calls on the situation, this much is clear: Shesterkin’s camp is hoping to set a new goalie market with this contract.

Whether that’s with the Rangers or elsewhere.

First, here’s what they’re fighting against — three notable recent No. 1 goalie contracts:

Shesterkin’s camp is looking to blow past those deals. And I think they will. For starters, the salary cap is going up on the regular now.

His camp views him as the best goalie in the world and one of the top players in the world, period.

His next contract will be double digits AAV, to be sure, aiming for more than the $10 million average annual value Sergei Bobrovsky received from the Florida Panthers in 2019 and the $10.5 million Carey Price got from the Canadiens in 2017, the two highest goalie AAVs currently on the books in the NHL.

This much we know from talking to league sources: The Rangers have indicated to Shesterkin’s camp that they’re willing to pay him more than Price’s $10.5 million AAV and thus make him the highest-paid goalie in league history.

But even knowing that, this deal isn’t done yet. Although talks are ongoing which is a positive.

So the question is, what will it take to get it done? Would $11.5 million? Or $12 million? Or $12.5 million? Or $13 million?

How much would he fetch next July 1 on the open market? Can you imagine having the top goalie in the world, in his prime, hit UFA? One with a .928 career playoff save percentage?

There’s a limit to how far the Rangers will go. They’ve got other players to worry about over the next few years. But again, they’re willing to pay north of Price’s $10.5 million.

The Rangers, of course, can also point to Hellebuyck’s extension from 13 months ago and argue that the two-time Vezina Trophy winner signed for $8.5 million a year (Shesterkin has won the Vezina once).

To which Shesterkin’s camp can respond by saying it’s about the percentage of the cap and the cap is now going up every year. And, well, they could also say they think Hellebuyck made a mistake signing that contract.

In Hellebuyck’s defense, first of all, that’s still a lot of money over seven years, but also let’s point out that when it appeared as though the Winnipeg Jets might be forced to trade their star goalie because it didn’t look at first early in that 2023 offseason like they would be able to sign him, Hellebuyck’s camp got an unofficial sense of the market and realized, I think to their surprise, that no one was ready to step up and drop a mega-contract on them. So they stayed put.

Meanwhile, while there’s an ongoing dialogue, the clock is ticking toward getting an extension done before the Rangers’ regular season begins Oct. 9. As The Athletic’s New York NHL writers Arthur Staple and Peter Baugh first reported a few days ago, the star goalie’s preference is to shelve talks once the regular season begins.

Regardless of how this plays out, it will be fascinating to watch, in part because of what it will say about teams allocating cap dollars to the goalie position.

Some of that is tied to the fact that No. 1 goalies don’t play as many games as they used to. Sports science has led to more crease sharing. But there’s also a genuine belief in some NHL front offices that the talent gap has shrunk among goalies.

This quote from a few weeks ago from Blues general manager Doug Armstrong comes to mind. For context, as Canada’s Olympic GM, he was responding to a question about the team’s concerns in net. But his response can easily be used to describe what’s happened across the board financially to goalies over the past few years.

“My view of goaltending is that the floor is closer to the ceiling now and closer than ever before,” Armstrong said of NHL goaltending. “That’s why you don’t see a generational goalie that’s at the top of the league like Brodeur was, or Belfour, or Patrick, or Hasek for a decade. You see players come in and go out every couple of years. That’s just because I think the floor is so high.”

Now, again, many people do view Shesterkin as the best goalie in the world, although that’s not unanimous. Some people would take Hellebuyck or Andrei Vasilevskiy or Sorokin or Saros.

But as mentioned above, when Hellebuyck had a chance (unofficially) to gauge the market for his services in the summer of 2023, it was a rude awakening.

All of which, again, speaks to how fascinating and perhaps impactful this Shesterkin contract might end up being.

Status quo on Swayman

It’s still status quo in talks between restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins as of Tuesday.

It’s unclear if the Bruins are waiting for Swayman to break, but there’s no sign of that so far. The one constant is that Swayman wants an eight-year deal. Both sides have been focused on a long-term deal. Obviously, the gap is in the AAV.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this gets done closer to opening night.

Kessel still hoping to play

Phil Kessel is not contemplating retirement yet. He’s eager to catch on with an NHL team on a PTO to prove himself.

A couple of teams have stayed in touch with his agent, Wade Arnott, on it. They wanted to see how things played out in their camps and preseason early on before circling back.

Kessel skated with NHL players in Arizona before camps opened and is training and keeping in shape. I’m told he doesn’t care about his regular season ironman streak if teams were worried about dealing with that. He would be open to missing games and playing whatever role was asked of him.

He’s also not begging for a job, but he genuinely believes he can still help someone.

His last NHL game was April 24, 2023, for Vegas, and obviously all that time off is a concern to teams.

Shattenkirk, too

Veteran UFA defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk still has interest in catching on somewhere. The 35-year-old played 61 games for the Bruins last season on a one-year, $1.05 million deal and feels he still has something to offer.

“Kevin is ready to play and patiently waiting for the right opportunity,” his agent, Jordan Neumann, said Tuesday. “There are several teams that we are keeping in regular contact with as their training camps unfold.”

This sounds like a situation where teams are evaluating whether a rookie is ready to make the jump or needs more time in the AHL.

But I would imagine Shattenkirk will land somewhere on the cheap over the next few weeks.

No Ullmark talks yet

Linus Ullmark is entering the final year of his contract, but extension talks still aren’t underway with the Ottawa Senators, colleague Chris Johnston reported Tuesday on our Insider Trading segment on TSN. The Sens took a big swing by acquiring the veteran goaltender from Boston in a June trade and have strong interest in trying to make his stay in Canada’s capital an extended one, but they’re planning to let things breathe a bit before getting down to business.

GM Steve Staios wants to give Ullmark time to get as excited about the team and city as the organization is already about having him in the fold.

INSIDER TRADING…

– Shesterkin camp looks to reset goalie market
– Sens waiting to start Ullmark extension talks
– Holland ready for next challenge
– Kessel seeking PTO; still eager to play
– Expansion not on agenda for next BOG meeting

MORE: https://t.co/n11mVV6DTL pic.twitter.com/EAGWRYrnaG

— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) September 24, 2024

League committed to a decentralized draft

After the NHL Draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas this past June, there was a lot of chatter from teams about whether the league should reconsider decentralizing the draft.

There was even talk of holding another vote among the 32 clubs on it.

I don’t believe that second vote ever happened.

The league confirmed Tuesday that, at the request of a large majority of clubs, it is moving forward with plans for a decentralized draft for June 2025.

So that’s locked in for June: a whole new look for the draft. The draft prospects will still be in one location, but the 32 front offices will be bunkered down in their respective markets.

(Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)