It is rare that you see so much excitement for a player call up, but there is no question that the New York Rangers fan base has been energized by the announcement made this morning.
According to an official release from the New York Rangers, the organization has recalled goaltender Igor Shesterkin from their American Hockey League affiliate team, the Hartford Wolf Pack. The move has generated a ton of buzz due to the fact that Shesterkin is viewed by many as the future of the organization, at least as far as goaltending is concerned, and it will now potentially pit the Rangers two young goaltenders against one another in the short term.
Rangers star goaltender Henrik Lundvist has been out with the flu as of late but it was reported that the veteran netminder would be healthy enough to continue to serve in a backup role behind 23 year old goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, however this call up would appear to indicate that this is no longer the case. There has been no official update on Lundqvist at this time but I would suspect that Shesterkin's time with the Rangers will be relatively short lived, due to the fact that the flu is unlikely to keep Lundqvist out for the long term.
This has been an extremely interesting season for the Rangers from a goaltending perspective. The team has been witness to the emergence of Georgiev as a legitimate option on goal at the National Hockey League level, so much so that his performance has sparked rumors of a potential goaltending trade from the Rangers. Georgiev has split the workload with Lundqvist, seemingly setting himself up as a goaltender of the future for the Rangers in his own right, with Lundqvist appearing in just 4 more games this season than his counterpart. Add to that the fact that Shesterkin has been waiting in the wings and you have set the stage for a situation in which trading at least 1 of those 3 goaltenders simply makes far too much sense.
Unlike the other goaltenders here Shesterkin has no NHL experience and may be looking to get his first taste of that action of the heels of today's announcement. He thus far has a 1.93 goals against average and a .932 save percentage over the course of 23 games in the American Hockey League this season, so you can see why fans are excited to see if those skills will translate to the NHL level.
Update: Rangers insider Larry Brooks is reporting that this call up is in fact not related to goaltending health issues. Take that as you will but it sounds to me like the likelihood of the Rangers making a trade involving a goaltender have just increased dramatically.
