Is 11.5M for the most overrated goalie in the history of hockey the worst contract in history?

[Chips]

This current Rangers retool-rebuild era feels so short. Feels like just yesterday they were on the major upswing.

Was largely goaltending in their peak.


Shesty almost won the Jack Adams.


He’s having a rough stretch but that happens with goalies as with any player.


Wasn’t he sort of carrying the team on their early win record to start this season? I thought people were saying the underlying numbers (ie skaters even strength play) was worse than the record.


Which has been the case for years lol. Shesty deserves a chance to rebound.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Everyone loves to talk about what a big game goalie Shesterkin is (because frankly other than an ancient Venzina there's nothing else to brag about in his game). However, this is the middle of a tight playoff push. The last game games before today:

View attachment 980974

That's 5 straight games with a save % of less than 0.900 and lost 4 of 5 IN THE MIDDLE OF A PLAYOFF PUSH. Frankly, outside of the Carolina game we could have won 4 of those games with better goaltending. And then today albeit in disgraceful effort by the Rangers he gave up 5 goals on 16 shots in the first period and got pulled. This will be a second time in three games against the *checks notes* Buffalo Sabres he got chased after giving up 5 goals, last time it was on 12 shots.

Shesterkin is a media and fan creation. And the Rangers bottom of the barrell GM was was terrified that he would be letting his Saquon Barkley out the door and bent over backwards for an absolute f***ing bum and gave him the richest contract for a goalie in NHL history.

Where did you have Shesterkin ranked this time last year?

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

OP obviously never heard of Scott Gomez...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Didn't he spend some time on the IR this season? He might just be playing hurt.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Where did you have Shesterkin ranked this time last year?

I've honestly not liked Shesterkin for years. He had a great start to his career in his first season but it was like 15 games or so. He also had the Vezina season. But other than that he is an extremely inconsistent goalie that runs super hot and cold. His typical arc has been good start to the season, like two months where's garbage and then the last two months of the regular season and the playoffs and he's good again. People just latch onto the playoffs and he actually has been good in the playoffs but seeing his inconsistent and this year deplorable play in the regular season tells me he's not Michael Jordan in the playoffs and it's a small sample size (compared to the far bigger sample size of his regular season career). If he is so clutch he would be carrying the team right now kicking and screaming in the playoffs. Today's game was a joke but he also gave up 5 goals on fewer than 1 expected goal against in the first period. With just good goaltending (the least you could expect from an 11.5M goalie) the Rangers would be in better playoff position. They're no threat in the playoffs. But this guy has made this team an utter joke this year. How the f*** do you get chased twice by the f***ing Buffalo Sabres? And this isn't some slump where it happened in a span of 4 games. The other game was in December when he was trash.

People need to let go of his couple of amazing playoff runs. Even against the Panthers where he was undoubtadly good, he gave up way too many softies and some at the worst times. He did the same against the Lightning two seasons before that. Both series the Rangers were largely outmanned and he played well but also his playing well somehow didn't translate for the full 60 minutes and late into these games.

My memory was a bit faulty, I thought this was the clinching goal, that one was more fluky than bad, but it came right after we scored so still deflating. This was the first goal in that game 6 against the Lightning.



Here's the game winning goal in game 5 against the Panthers



I'm not saying he wasn't good. But I also don't think he was nearly as good as the sensationalism around him. And as I said I trust the larger sample size of him being inconsistent and at times downright bad of the regular season over the smaller sample size of the playoffs. If he were a big game goalie he wouldn't have self destructed in a playoff push this year.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Shest is an elite goalie with an absurd contract just like lundqvist, price and bobrovsky
Even the best goalies have off years.

Last 3 playoffs
2024 .926 in 16 games
2023 .931 in 7 games
2022 .929 in 20 games

That’s cup winning goaltending year in year out.


Chill tf out rags fans

 

[Dirtyclapper]

Definitely the most overrated player in the league today

Elias Pettersson

 

[ItWasJustified]

People blaming the team are annoying because for some reason the goalie is the one position that is sacred and always needs a "but the team in front of him!" disclaimer.

But the team in front of him have sucked defensively for several years now. They've bled chances against.

He now also have two small kids instead of just one. Whatever any hockey player say about "being a better player" when they get kids is a fat lie, for a bunch of extremely obvious reasons.

 

[Deno]

Sometimes it just isn't a goalie's year. Just hope his bounce-back doesn't take as long as Bobrovsky's

When was Helle's year not a good goalie year?
Seems to me that Helle is a steal at 8.25M over the next 6 years after this season..
Especially with the massive rise of the Cap in the next 3 years.

Goalies are only as good as the team in front of them.

Teams are only as good as the goalies that back them up.

 

[Felidae]

Was always gonna be hard to top his vezina year, but he was pretty good the 2 years following in which he finished 8th in GSAA twice and 10th and 14th in sv%. This is really the first year he's been below average statisticslly.

He's not worth his contract and probably a tad overrated. But it's not even the worst contract right nowstatistically. (Huberdeau says hi), let alone in hockey history.

 

[Grifter3511]

When was Helle's year not a good goalie year?
Seems to me that Helle is a steal at 8.25M over the next 6 years after this season..
Especially with the massive rise of the Cap in the next 3 years.


Teams are only as good as the goalies that back them up.

If your last point was true Rangers would have had 5 or 6 cups during the Lundqvist years.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

But the team in front of him have sucked defensively for several years now. They've bled chances against.

He now also have two small kids instead of just one. Whatever any hockey player say about "being a better player" when they get kids is a fat lie, for a bunch of extremely obvious reasons.

I won't get into whether they've sucked defensively for several years or not. The team this year especially hasn't been good at all both ends of the ice. But that's a $6M goalie excuse not an $11.5M goalie excuse. Early on in the season when they were giving up shots on goal by the bunches maybe that's a reasonable take. As I've said they haven't given up more than 30 since early January more than a handful of times. I understand that shots on goal is not the same as quality but if you're allowing fewer than 30 shots on goal most nights your did your job. Make some high danger chance saves if that's all you face. He's giving up softies and has been mediocre on high danger chances too. If the guy is only as good as his team how is he worth the highest goalie contract in history? If the Oilers have a bunch of injuries next season and McDavid scores 60 points, no one will be falling over backwards to excuse it. They'd be like WTF is wrong with McDavid? 11.5M you're supposed to be the best or at least close to it at your position.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

Not yet, but let's all hope that it becomes the worst contract in history.