BURSTAt this point of the season, when you’re a goalie who plays less than once a week, a single outing can still make a huge impact on your numbers.
Entering Sunday’s tilt with the Seattle Kraken, Jonathan Quick — one of the best backups in the biz since he joined the New York Rangers at the start of last year — had a .936 save percentage in seven games this season. After the contest, which saw the Kraken pump five straight goals past Quick in just over 17 minutes of play at the end of the second and start of the third, the 38-year-old left a 7-5 loss with a .915 SP on the year.
Still a nice number, but quite a dip based on one afternoon’s work.
Just as Quick’s save percentage had a wild swing, it sure feels like there’s still a wide range of outcomes for these Rangers after a crazy week that saw them trade a captain and ink their other goalie — the one who is really going to have a say in their fortunes — to the richest crease contract in NHL history.
On Friday, the Rangers finalized their divorce from former captain Jacob Trouba by trading him to the Anaheim Ducks, then turned around and agreed to pay Igor Shesterkin $92 million on an eight-year extension. The goalie — who turns 29 just after Christmas — will account for an $11.5-million cap hit beginning next October, the highest mark of anyone in the league at his position.
That night, Shesterkin went out and stopped 20 pucks in a 4-2 win in Pittsburgh that represented just the second time in eight tries New York had emerged with a W.
But 48 hours later, the Rangers were getting exposed on home ice by a Seattle club that isn’t exactly a league power. And while it’s Quick’s numbers that take the biggest hit, nobody can place blame for the defeat on the goalie. New York’s shoddy defence — which has been an issue all year — was on full display as the Blueshirts blew a 3-1 lead, giving up soul-sucking goals in both the final minute of the second frame and the opening 60 seconds of the third.
Suffice to say, moving Trouba and removing the uncertainty around Shesterkin isn’t going to solve every problem the Rangers have.
The team’s underlying numbers are not strong. New York ranks 21st in the league with an expected goals percentage of 49.52 according to Money Puck and 26th in the NHL in terms of high-danger Corsi for percentage (47.34) according to Natural Stat Trick. Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck — the club’s top two centres — have underperformed and they’re certainly not alone in that regard on the roster. (Granted, Trocheck did just have himself a five-point weekend to possibly get rolling).
Still, this team has the bones of a club that went to the Eastern Conference Final last season. If Shesterkin finds top form, as he did in the back half of last season, that alone makes New York dangerous. And, with Trouba’s $8-million cap hit now completely off the books, Rangers GM Chris Drury has some flexibility to try and fill his team’s holes ahead of the trade deadline.
Of course, Drury himself has come under fire in some circles for the way he leveraged a waiver threat to get both Trouba and, back in the summer, Barclay Goodrow to accept trades rather than worry about where they’d wind up if placed on waivers.
The Rangers have always been a destination for players and even this bout of turbulence surely won’t completely undercut that. Still, given the current state of the team and the way a couple vets have been pushed off stage recently, Drury and his organization have some work to do to regain both their on- and off-ice status.
Weekend Takeaways
• Speaking of the Kraken, Shane Wright scored a nice goal in Sunday’s victory and the fourth-overall pick from 2022 appears to be finding his NHL footing. Wright has hit the back of the net in three straight games and buried six goals in his past eight outings. It’s been a long, twist-filled road for the kid — Wright is still just 20 years old — many expected to headline the 2022 draft class. Let’s see if this latest upswing is a sign of something more permanent.
• The Washington Capitals dropped their first two games without Alex Ovechkin after he fractured his fibula on Nov. 18. Since then, the Caps — who took two points out of Toronto on Friday and two more from Montreal the very next night — have gone 6-0-1. Tom Wilson has been a point-per-game player since Ovie was hurt (5-4-9 in nine) and Jakob Chychrun has continued to produce at basically a 60-point clip from the blueline with eight points in that stretch. And, don’t look now, but Pierre-Luc Dubois has a dozen points in his past 14 contests. With Christmas around the corner, there may not be a better story in the league than the Caps.
• Dubois’ former club, the Los Angeles Kings, may not quite be a Washington-level surprise this year, but it’s time to toss them some flowers, too. The Kings downed the Wild — yet another unanticipated league power this year, tied with the Caps atop the standings with a .741 points percentage — 4-1 on Saturday for their fifth straight win. It marked the sixth time in its past nine contests that L.A. has held opponents to a single goal. The only teams with a better points percentage than L.A.’s .648 mark this year are the Caps, Wild, Golden Knights (.696) and now-stumbling Jets (.690). Los Angeles ranks No. 1 in expected goals for percentage (57.16) on Money Puck and has been doing all this with top defenceman Drew Doughty on the shelf the entire year. The Kings, who started the year going 3-3-2 on a seven-game roadie, now begin their second seven-gamer away from home on Tuesday on Long Island.
The Week Ahead
• The NHL Board of Governors meet Monday and Tuesday in South Florida, so expect to hear some tangible 2025-26 salary cap projections soon.
• Trouba is expected to make his Anaheim Ducks debut on Monday in Montreal.
• The Cole Harbour Cup goes off on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, when Nathan MacKinnon’s Avalanche visit Sidney Crosby’s Penguins. Things have been going better of late for the Nova Scotia boys. MacKinnon’s Avs — who’ve been haunted by poor puckstopping all year — allowed just one total goal in two weekend wins in Detroit and New Jersey. Meanwhile, Sid and the Pens beat Toronto on Saturday for their fifth win in six tries.
• Also on Tuesday, Canada will open its selection camp in Ottawa for the 2025 world junior championship being held in that city.
-
-
NHL on Sportsnet
Livestream Hockey Night in Canada, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey, the Oilers, Flames, Canucks, out-of-market matchups, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NHL Draft.
• On Thursday, the Predators will visit old friend Matt Duchene in Dallas. We couldn’t say if Duchene is the schadenfreude type, but since Nashville — which is a complete mess right now — bought him out in the summer of 2023 to throw all kinds of money at other players, all Duchene has done is put up 94 points in 107 outings with the Stars. His assist on Sunday was his 29th point in 27 games this year.
• It’s a huge 15-game slate on Saturday. Matthew Tkachuk — who has an outrageous 13 points in his past four games — returns to Calgary in what will surely be an emotional night for him recalling all the years he played there with pal Johnny Gaudreau. Jim Montgomery will also visit Dallas — the first team he coached in the NHL — for the first time as bench boss of the Stars’ Central Division rivals, the Blues.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Toronto Maple Leafs (16-9-2) In the six games he’s played since returning from an injury, Auston Matthews has three two-point outings, including his pair of assists in Saturday’s 5-2 loss in Pittsburgh.
2. Edmonton Oilers (15-10-2) Are we starting to see the Zach Hyman who was a goal-scoring menace the past couple years in Edmonton? Hyman netted a goal in Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Blues and has three goals in his past two outings.
3. Winnipeg Jets (20-9-0) The Jets dropped a 4-1 decision to the Blue Jackets ib Sunday night to kick off a four-game homestand. Since Nov. 14, only three teams — Detroit, Nashville and Chicago — have a lower points percentage than Winnipeg’s .385.
4. Vancouver Canucks (14-8-4) This is Pius Suter’s fifth NHL campaign and each of his first four resulted in 14- or 15-goal seasons. After bagging a pair in Friday’s win over Columbus, Suter is up to 11 this year.
5. Calgary Flames (13-10-5) The Flames, 6-2 losers to Dallas on Sunday, have allowed four or more goals in five of their past seven outings.
6. Ottawa Senators (12-13-2) Ottawa plays Anaheim on Wednesday to close out a four-game homestand. After that, the Sens will hit the road for 10 of 11 contests as the world junior championship takes over the holidays in Ottawa. What will this team’s record be in early January?
7. Montreal Canadiens (10-14-3) With a goal in Saturday’s loss to the Capitals, Cole Caufield is up to 16 on the year. That means, right now, the American with the most goals in the NHL is not on Team USA’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster.
