Igor Shesterkin (© Brad Penner-Imagn Images)The Hockey News' main site recently discussed four NHL goalies who are most likely to have bounce-back seasons during the 2025-26 campaign. Among the players who made the cut was New York Rangers star goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Shesterkin will undoubtedly be looking to bounce back in 2025-26, as he had a tough year this past campaign. In 61 games during the 2024-25 season, the two-time All-Star recorded a 27-29-5 record, a 2.86 goals-against average, and a .905 save percentage. With this, he had the worst goals-against average and save percentage of his career.
Now, if the Rangers hope to get back to being a playof team, they will need Shesterkin to be the elite goaltender he is capable of being. If he gets back to being a Vezina Trophy caliber goaltender, the Rangers will certainly be a far more difficult team to go up against again.
In each of his three previous seasons with the Rangers before 2024-25, Shesterkin had at least 36 wins and a .912 save percentage. This includes his monster 2021-22 season, as he had a 36-13-4 record and set career-bests with a .935 save percentage and a 2.07 goals-against average. Thus, he has shown that he can be far better than he was in 2024-25, so it is hard to bet against him bouncing back.
In 274 games over six seasons with the Rangers so far, Shesterkin has recorded a 162-88-22 record, a .917 save percentage, a 2.52 goals-against average, and 21 shutouts.