Though the New York Rangers’ competitive hopes for the 2026-27 season were dealt a massive blow when it was announced that star goaltender Igor Shesterkin would miss the rest of the season with an injury, the situation is not without its silver linings for the club. Shesterkin’s injury, along with a more minor injury suffered by veteran backup Joonas Korpisalo, has allowed goalie prospect Dylan Garand to have his longest stint in the NHL of his young career.
So far, he’s generally impressed, even if he’s slowed down a bit as of late.
Garand’s emergence could pay dividends for a Rangers team that traded away significant draft capital over the summer. According to The Athletic’s Vince Z.
Mercogliano, the Rangers may try to capitalize on Garand’s increasing value next summer by trading him away, assuming Garand “puts together a solid season and teams come calling about a trade.” Mercogliano pointed out that New York’s situation with Garand is not entirely dissimilar to the situation they found themselves in back in 2015, when Cam Talbot emerged as a future No. 1 goalie while he was still Henrik Lundqvist’s backup.
The Rangers ended up trading Talbot for a package of draft picks headlined by a second and third-rounder.
Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:
After yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier did not hold back in expressing what he feels is wrong with this year’s team. During his postgame media availability, Couturier said the Flyers are “soft,” and added that they “definitely need to pick up [their] physicality.” The Flyers have fallen to a 3-8-4 record and head coach Rick Tocchet has faced some sharp criticism amid the poor start.
Just a short time ago, it looked as though the Rangers had made their center depth one of the franchise’s core strengths. In January 2025, the club traded for Vancouver Canucks star pivot J.T.
Miller, who had scored 103 points the year prior, giving the team a star-level No. 1 center to pair with incumbent Mika Zibanejad. Now, both Miller and Zibanejad are 33, and Mercogliano wrote that he “can’t shake the feeling that the Rangers are going to be stuck in no man’s land until they add a play driver at the top of the lineup.” If New York does indeed need a true No. 1 center to shift Miller and Zibanejad into middle-six roles, such a player could prove extremely difficult to acquire, especially given the number of key draft assets the Rangers traded away over the summer to add Pavel Dorofeyev and Marcus Pettersson.