The stats come pouring out of Russia and it’s easy to wonder if there is a typo. Then it’s easy to wonder about the competition and the league, and how that is affecting the numbers. And after all that, it’s easy to project and wonder if this young enigma playing in the KHL is the future Raℱngers goaltender.
A lot has already been made about Igor Shesterkin, ꧟who was the club’s fourth-round pick (No. 118 overall) in 2014. Now 22, he has spent the past three seasons splitting time i🅠n net for SKA St. Petersburg, who are far and away the best team in a league that is long on authoritarian oligarchies and short on competitive balance.
But the numbers are staggering. This season, Shesterkin (the Americanized spelling of⛎ Shestyorki🐎n) has a 14-3-0 record with a 1.30 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage in 17 appearances. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, he is 69-9-3 with a 1.59 GAA and .938 save percentage, to go along with 20 shutouts, in 84 KHL appearances.
“The perception that SKA is the Oilers of the 1980s. When you watch the games, it’s been stop and go with SKA,” Rangers director of European scouting Nick Bobrov told The Post. “Even in the years they won, it was fairly challenging, tumultuous at times. Maybe the perception is such, but the reality is always that whatever goalie was in net had to make the saves, a𓄧ll the time. SKA was always filled with ‘superstars’ with the KHL standards. At times they get away from the systems. Like they were like the Globetrotters, and the goalie had to clean up the mess.
“So I would say the numbers are deserved.”
Bobrov pointed to the outdoor game in front of a record crowd of 71,381 in St. Petersburg on Dec. 17, when Shesterkin backstopped the Russian national team to a 5-0 win over Finland. It seemed like an🅠 easy win on paper only because Shesterkin made “10 Grade-A saves,” according to Bobrov, in the opening minutes to give his team a chance to get into the game.
“From the first shift, it was clear he was not giving up a goal tonigꦦht,” Bobrov said. “He was out🎃standing.”
Besides just the raw talent of the 6-ꦯfoot-1, 190-﷽pounder, there is also the competitiveness that made the Rangers so enamored.
“He understands the amount of work it takes,” Bobrov said. “He’s always been the hardest worker on every team he plays on. His coaches, from when he was 9, 10, 11, that’s alwa🌸ys been th🐎e narrative with him — extremely competitive and extremely hard-working, to the point of he would cry if the team lost and he would blame himself when he was very little.”
It hasn’t been easy for Shesterkin, who has never been given the reigns as the full-on No. 1 goalie. Even on the national stage, he has split starting duties with the Islanders’ highly touted goalie prospect, Ilya Sorokin. Yet in the big games🔯 it seems he always gets the nod, like in the World Championships this spring when he played for the Russian team that bowed out in the first round of the knock-out sꦛtage in an overtime thriller against Canada.
“His career thus far has been mentally challenging from the standpoint of being 1, 1a, and always competing in the job,” Bobrov said. “He’s handled it really well,🌳 he’s stepped up in big moments.”
So now the question is how th💙at can translate to the NHL. In the KHL, the game is played on the much larger international ice surface, so he faces far fewer sharp-angle chances, and less traffic in front. The game is far more finesse and a lot less battling in front. Yet Bobrov said that Shesterkin is “very, ver🍃y good at tracking the puck through traffic, calm seeing the puck through several screens. I don’t expect that to be a great challenge, because he’s good at that.”
Of course, the adjustment to living in New York and playing in North America could be a shock for anyone. But at✃ least on the ice, there would be the help of Rangers goaltending guru Benoit Allaire, regarded as one of the b♛est in the sport at what he does.
“Igor is very awar♌e of the amount of knowledge that Benny has,”♏ Bobrov said.
And so Shesterkin is going to play out the rest oꦓf this year in the KHL, the final year of his contract, and then go once ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmore to the World Championships in May in Slovakia. (There is a good chance he could meet a couple Rangers teammates over there, as well, playing after what is likely to be a playoff-less spring.)
Then, assuming general manager Jeff Gorton can get him to sign an entry-level deal, Shesterkin will join the Rangers for training camp in September. That is when it will be seen up close just how good he is, and possibly proj﷽ect just how good he c🧸an be.
Henrik Lundqvist will also be there, too, by then a 37-year-old with two more years remaining on his contract at $8.5 million per. Lundqvist hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down just yet, but time is a foe against whom nobody has won. So the Blueshirts are preparing a successiౠon plan, with 22-year-old and curreꦺnt backup Alex Georgiev also in the conversation (if he is not traded before then).
But as hard as the hype machine has been running for ꦐShesterkin, calling anyone the replacement for Lundqvist is a difficult cross to bear. It’s to be seen if Shesterkin is up for it.
“We’re talking about a Hall of ⛄Fame goaltender and that’s very big shoes to fill,” Bobrov said. “We would not want to put that type of pressure on anyone at this point. Remember when Hank first came, there were no expectations. Better to keep it like that.”
Too late.