Unfortunately, the news wasn’t good on Igor Shesterkin. In a devastating blow to the season, the Rangers announced that Shesterkin is out for the season.

It’s the worst case scenario for the Rangers who will now have to rely on unproven rookie Dylan Garand as the number one goalie. The 24-year-old from Victoria, British Columbia has had early success so far in the NHL. In five career games, he’s 3-1-1 with a 1.31 goals-against-average and .954 save percentage. That includes posting his first shutout in a win over the Red Wings on Oct. 2.

“I’m excited,” Garand told reporters after learning that he’ll be counted on as the starter. “Obviously it’s a dream come true to to play in the NHL. I’m just trying to embrace that mentality and have a lot of gratitude for this opportunity. I love being part of this group and I love the guys in this room. So I really just want to work my nuts off and battle for these guys and help the team keep winning.”

With Garand expected to get most of the starts for the foreseeable future, the Rangers announced that Spencer Martin was medically cleared to return from his injury. He’ll be called up from Hartford to be the backup for Sunday’s game versus the Canucks at Madison Square Garden.

On the goalie front, it was also revealed that Korpisalo is still four weeks away from returning. Acquired by Chris Drury from the Bruins this past off-season, the 32-year-old veteran could play a more important role once he’s back. He’ll likely share goaltender duties with Garand, who’s still a first-year player. Hopefully, he can provide some input for Garand to lean on.

With Shesterkin done for the year, it’s another season gone for a great goalie who’s only been to the postseason twice. Both times, he carried the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 and 2024. The former 2021-22 Vezina winner is considered by many to be the league’s best netminder. He’s in the same class as Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, and Ilya Sorokin.

Shesterkin had already won three games with a 1.79 GAA and .927 save percentage in five starts when he went down during the second period on Friday night at Washington. His right leg banged hard right into the goalpost, which never budged off its moorings. When he didn’t put any weight on the right leg while being helped off the ice, it was a bad indication that it was a serious long-term injury.

Unfortunately, he isn’t the first Rangers goalie to suffer from an injury like that. In 2001, Mike Richter tore his ACL in a game against the Blackhawks on Feb. 19, 2001. It was eerily similar to Shesterkin. His right skate collided with the left goalpost leaving him in a lot of pain.

After having reconstructive right knee surgery, Richter recovered in time to return for the season opener on Oct. 5, 2001. Unfortunately, it proved to be his final full year at the age of 35. In a game against the Atlanta Thrashers the following season, he was struck in the goalie mask by an errant Chris Tamer shot, which gave him a concussion and skull fracture. Richter suffered a second concussion on a collision with Todd Marchant against the Oilers on Nov. 5, 2002. Ironically, it was the franchise record 301st win of his brilliant career, which proved to be the end – leading to his retirement.

Richter had the worst luck of any great Rangers goalie. Prior to tearing the right ACL, he suffered a torn left ACL from playing in an All-Star Super Skills competition in 2000, which led to reconstructive knee surgery on Apr. 5.

The most concerning part of today’s news is that the Rangers didn’t reveal what the injury to Shesterkin is. That can only lead to more guessing until they finally make a formal announcement, which will hopefully come after the weekend. There needs to be full transparency so we can learn how long the recovery process will be for the Rangers’ most valuable player.

They’ll now try to move on without him. After having a four-game winning streak snapped last night, head coach Mike Sullivan made some changes to his top six. He finally moved up the struggling Pavel Dorofeyev on the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Gabe Perreault. This was something that had been expected before the season started.

Alexis Lafreniere took reps on the second line with J.T. Miller and Tye Kartye. Lafreniere has been on fire scoring four goals and adding an assist for five points over the last two games. His six points pace the Rangers in scoring.

Cole Beaudoin Sent Down

Following his giveaway that led to Boone Jenner’s game-winner in Friday’s 3-1 defeat to the Caps, rookie Cole Beaudoin was sent down to Hartford. He appeared in two games before being shipped back to the Wolf Pack to continue his development.

Juuso Parssinen was called up for tomorrow’s game.