CANTLON’S CORNER: LOOKING AHEAD TO PACK 2019-20 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The calendar has flipped over to January 2019 and it’s just short seven weeks until the arrival of the NHL’s trading deadline on February 25^th. There are some very interesting variables that are involved that will shape the future of the Hartford Wolf Pack roster for next season.

At the top of the list is where the New York Rangers brass view where their team two-thirds of the way into David Quinn’s first season behind the bench as well as their salary cap structure as they head into next year prior to what is likely to be a lockout season coming in 2020-21.

Here’s a view of what the future looks like by position. Let’s start between the pipes.

GOALIES

The situation in the MSG net is quite possibly the most complicated position to prognosticate in the Ranger organization.

Henrik Lundqvist will turn 37-years-old on March 2nd and has two years remaining on the contract that pays him roughly $8M a season. He is starting to show signs of slowing down despite his Herculean level of play at times this season.

Waiting in the wings for the Rangers, and who they have been very keen on bringing in is Igor Shestyorkin (the Americanized version of Shesterkin) over from SKA St. Petersburg (Russia-KHL), where he is in the last year of his deal there.

It’s not that simple though because the question is simply, “will he, or won’t he come over?”

“We’re hoping, and we think he has put in his time in the KHL, but to be honest, we really don’t know at this point,” a Rangers official who requested anonymity said with fingers crossed.

The numbers Shestyorkin has in Russia are indeed eye-popping.

In 84 KHL games, over the last three years, he has a 69-9-3 with 1.59 GAA, a .938 save percentage and 20 shutouts.

Heading into this weekend’s play, Shestyorkin is 14-3-0, has a 1.30 GAA. He was a fourth-round draft pick (118th overall) back in 2014.

On December 17^th he backstopped the Russian national team to a 5-0 win over their regional rival, Finland, before 71.381 at an outdoor game in St. Petersburg.

As good as the numbers are, the Rangers must remain clear-eyed about any decision they make on him. Shestyorkin is going to need time to transition to North American hockey which has 10 feet less of space to operate within width wise which effects the angles at which shots come from and an “in-your-face” style of hockey, as well as a much higher talent level here in the US as opposed to in Russia.

Because of his tremendous numbers, Shestyorkin’s agents will demand the Russian goes straight to the NHL. The AHL, they will tell Rangers GM, Jeff Gorten, that it’s out of the question. Alexander Georgiev, the current understudy to Lundqvist, took more than two months to make the adjustment.

Convincing Shestyorkin to willingly be part of the development process, should he choose to come to New York, as well as getting him here in the first place without a transfer agreement in place with the Russian hockey federation, will require some serious diplomatic negotiating by the Rangers.

But there’s more.

The future of the goalie situation also includes two current junior and college hockey goalies who are also Ranger draft picks.

One of those netminders operates in a locker room about 25 feet from the Wolf Pack locker room at the XL Center. He is UConn’s, Adam Huska. His numbers put him tenth in the Hockey East conference, but his performance Monday afternoon at Yale, where he was like a goalie artist demonstrating a myriad of moves in a 30-save mosaic and shutout, clearly has a future with the Rangers.

In 35 games played this season, Huska has a 2.84 GAA through 740:27 of play. His save percentage of .915 is good enough to place him at tenth best in the conference. Huska’s record this season stands at 4-7-1. But numbers tell just a part of any player’s performance. In Huska’s case, it masks just how well he’s played for UCONN. He’s many games he’s kept his team in games when they were not up to par. For example, an early-season meeting with Quinnipiac; there was a game at Northeastern and one in Amherst, MA against the Minutemen. Huska is the real deal.

The other goalie is UMass-Lowell’s Tyler Wall.

In twelve games played, Wall is fourth overall while sporting a 2.22 GAA through 614:22 minutes of action. Wall has the fifth best conference save percentage at .916. His record is 5-6-1.

Olof Lindbom was drafted by the Rangers last June. He has been sidelined with an injury for most of the year while in Sweden. Where he sits in the equation is, at best, unknown.

Both Huska and Wall are likely to be signed. Brandon Halverson (Maine Mariners – ECHL) and Chris Nell (Greenville Swamp Rabbits – ECHL) are in the last year of their entry-level deals. They will battle it out for the number one job in Hartford.

Meanwhile, in Hartford, there are the two veterans netminders in Dustin Tokarski and Marek Mazanec. Each struggled early in the season along with their teammates. The pair has come along in their play between the pipes, Tokarski, in particular. They are in the last month of their respective contracts with $200K going to Mazanec and $250K to Tokarski. Expect one next season to likely head to Europe next season while the other will be in Hartford as the veteran mentor for the rookie netminder.