Rangers Name Starting Goaltender After Shesterkin Injury And It Isn't Pretty.

The New York Rangers suffered a devastating loss over the weekend when they learned that goaltender Igor Shesterkin would miss the remainder of the 2026-27 National Hockey League regular season.

It has put the Rangers in a truly horrible position with Shesterkin unquestionably the team's most valuable player, and on Sunday we learned that the Rangers are now turning to a man with virtually no NHL experience. Head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed that it will be Dylan Garand who will step in and attempt to fill Shesterkin's massive shoes, a player who has appeared in a total of just 5 games at the NHL level.

That being said Garand has been solid, recording a 1.31 goals against average and a .954 save percentage over those 5 NHL appearances, and the Rangers will need more of that if they are to succeed with Shesterkin out for the season.

The Rangers do have veteran NHL goaltender Joonas Korpisalo on their roster but unfortunately Korpisalo is also currently sidelined due to injury and won't be available for the Rangers, not even to serve as Garand's backup. Instead the Rangers are expected to use Spencer Martin as Garand's backup, with Martin himself only just recently cleared to play after being sidelined by injury as well.

It will be interesting to see how the Rangers respond on the ice after such a gut punch so early in the season.