Shesterkin’s Right-Leg Injury Leaves Rangers Without a Backup

Igor Shesterkin was helped off the ice with a right-leg injury in the second period of the Rangers’ 3-1 loss in Washington on Friday. He put no weight on the leg. Dylan Garand finished a night New York already had to play without its NHL backup.

Joonas Korpisalo has been on injured reserve since Oct. 1. Spencer Martin, the next man at Hartford, is day-to-day with a lower-body injury of his own. Sunday’s crease against Vancouver belongs to a 24-year-old who cleared waivers on Sept. 28.

Shesterkin Needed Help Off the Ice

The Rangers arrived at Capital One Arena at 4-1-0, winners of four straight, with Shesterkin having stopped most of what the East had thrown at him. In four starts he was 3-1-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average and a.926 save percentage. He had also scored his first NHL goal in a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay on Oct. 1.

Washington defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 and snapped that streak. The score was the second story. At 8:20 of the second period, with the Capitals on a power play and the game tied 1-1, Shesterkin was helped off the ice with a lower-body injury and did not come back.

Mike Sullivan, the Rangers coach, said after the game that he had no update on the 30-year-old’s condition.

Well, it’s concerning, obviously. He’s an elite goaltender, and you don’t ever want to see anybody get hurt, but, obviously, he’s an important player for us.

Mike Sullivan, Rangers coach, at Capital One Arena

Adam Fox called him the pillar on the back end and said the bench was hoping for the best. Captain J.T. Miller called the sight awful and a shock, then pointed at Garand and said the rest of the roster had to step up. Mika Zibanejad said Shesterkin had been giving them a chance to win every night for a very long time.

Sullivan went further than that, as he has all year. He said Shesterkin is among the best goalies in the world, if not the best, and that he is that good. The Rangers are 4-2-0. They have not allowed a first-period goal in six games. None of that fills the crease on Sunday.

His Right Skate Caught a Post That Held

Alexis Lafreniere had opened the scoring at 10:17 of the first, a power-play wrist shot from the slot off a Miller feed, his fourth goal in two games after a hat trick against the Islanders. Timothy Liljegren, in his first season in Washington after a March trade from San Jose, tied it at 6:08 of the second with a one-timer from the left point through a screen.

Less than a minute later the Capitals went back to the power play. Shesterkin came out to challenge, then scrambled back toward the crease. His right skate jammed into the right post. The post stayed on its pegs. His right leg bent under him as he fell, and he stayed down in the crease while head athletic trainer Andy Hosler worked on him.

Defensemen Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson got him off the ice. He put no weight on the right leg, and he needed more help down the tunnel. The Rangers announced at the start of the third period that he would not return. He had stopped 13 of 14 shots in 28 minutes and 20 seconds.

People who slow the clip keep landing on the same two points. The iron did not give, which is the opposite of why those pegs exist, and the pad hid how much the knee folded. A family doctor who reviews NHL injuries wrote that an ankle fracture was the fear because the post stayed put. An athletic therapist looking at the same angles saw valgus stress at the knee and named the MCL, ACL, and meniscus as the worry list. The Rangers have not said which structure is involved, and they had no update after the game.

Garand took over with the score 1-1 and stopped 11 shots. Boone Jenner, on a four-year, $23 million deal signed July 1, made it 2-1 at 17:38 when he intercepted Cole Beaudoin’s clearing attempt and beat Garand from between the circles, his first goal as a Capital. Logan Thompson made 21 saves. Tom Wilson scored into the empty net at 19:59. Washington is 3-1-0 and 3-0-0 against the Metropolitan Division.

Korpisalo Is Out and Martin Is Hurt

The injury would be a problem on any roster that leans on one starter. It is a different problem on this one, because the next two names were already unavailable before Shesterkin hit the post.

Chris Drury, the president and general manager, traded a 2028 fourth-round pick and Kalle Väisänen to Boston on July 1 to get Korpisalo as the veteran behind Shesterkin. Korpisalo went on injured reserve on Oct. 1 with a lower-body injury and was listed as week-to-week. Sullivan said Friday there was no change in that status. He has not been skating.

Hartford is not a clean safety net either. On Sept. 24 the Rangers assigned goaltenders Spencer Martin and Callum Tung to the Wolf Pack. Martin, 31, is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and was already listed that way for Hartford’s early games. Last season he went 1-3-0 in six games with New York and 3-13-6 with a.873 save percentage in 22 games with the Wolf Pack.

NEW YORK’S CREASE AFTER FRIDAY

Tung, a 22-year-old from Port Moody, British Columbia, went 7-8-1 with an.855 save percentage and a 3.94 goals-against average in 16 games at Hartford last season. He also played 19 ECHL games with the Bloomington Bison, going 8-9-2 with a.907 save percentage, a 3.10 GAA, and one shutout. If Martin cannot travel, he is the name left on paper.

Vince Z. Mercogliano, who covers the club, wrote that one reason he disliked putting Garand on waivers was how thin New York is at the position, and that the team is fortunate the 24-year-old cleared. He said the two goalies who dress on Sunday are likely Garand and Tung.

Garand Cleared Waivers on Sept. 28

Garand was the fourth-round pick in 2020 who spent four winters in Hartford and made the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic. He is no longer waiver-exempt. The Rangers sent him down on Sept. 28, he cleared, and they recalled him on Oct. 1 when Korpisalo went on IR. That paperwork is the only reason he was on the bench when Shesterkin went down.

He already had one NHL start this season. On Oct. 2 in Detroit he made 22 saves in a 2-0 win, his first NHL shutout. In five career NHL games, four of them starts, he is 3-1-1 with a 1.31 GAA, a.954 save percentage, and that one shutout. Late last season he went 2-0-1 with a 1.62 GAA and a.948 save percentage in a three-game look. In 36 games with Hartford in 2025-26 he was 16-15-2 with a.896 save percentage and a 2.83 GAA. His AHL file is 65-57-19 in 148 games.

GARAND’S NHL NIGHTS

• Late 2025-26: Three games, 2-0-1, 1.62 GAA,.948 save percentage, the look that made a waiver claim a live risk.
• Oct. 2 at Detroit: 22 saves, 2-0, first NHL shutout, called up the day before when Korpisalo hit IR.
• Oct. 9 at Washington: First NHL relief job, 11 saves, beaten by Jenner at 17:38 after Shesterkin left at 8:20 of the second.

Miller put the next shift on him in the room. Garand has the puck-stopping sample of a hot call-up, not of an 82-game starter. He also has the only healthy NHL body in the organization who has actually won a game in this league. That is the whole depth chart until Korpisalo skates or Shesterkin puts weight on the right leg.

Last January Cost the Rangers 13 Games

This is the second time in nine months a lower-body injury has taken Shesterkin off the ice without him putting weight on a leg. The legs are not the same. On Jan. 5 at Madison Square Garden, in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth, he went down in the first period after a scramble with JJ Peterka and could not put weight on his left leg. Jonathan Quick replaced him. The club put Shesterkin on injured reserve the next day.

He missed 13 games. He returned Feb. 26 against the Philadelphia Flyers, the first night after the Olympic break, and lost 3-2 in overtime. In the 13 games without him, and without Fox, who went down the same night and landed on long-term IR, the Rangers went 2-11. By the break they sat last in the Eastern Conference. Drury told the team it was heading into a retool. Shesterkin still finished 25-19-6 with a 2.50 GAA, a.912 save percentage, and one shutout in 51 starts. It was the second season of his eight-year deal at $11.5 million a year, the richest AAV at the position when he signed it. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2021-22.

SHESTERKIN’S LAST LOWER-BODY ABSENCE

1. Jan. 5, 2026: Leaves in the first period against Utah, no weight on the left leg, 3-2 overtime loss at the Garden.
2. Jan. 6, 2026: Goes on injured reserve; Fox is moved to long-term IR the same day.
3. Jan. 16, 2026: Drury tells the club it will begin a retool after the standings slide.
4. Feb. 26, 2026: Returns against the Flyers after 13 games, a 3-2 overtime loss, with the Rangers last in the East.

Last winter they still had Quick, a veteran who had started in this league for a decade. This time the veteran is Korpisalo, and he is not skating. The rhyme is the non-contact lower-body scene and the slow walk down the tunnel. The difference is who stands behind him.

Who Starts Against Vancouver on Sunday?

The Rangers host the Canucks on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden, then Tampa Bay at home on Oct. 13. Sullivan said the group would practice, and that is when the club usually has the next medical sentence. As of Saturday morning, that sentence had not been issued.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The play: Right skate into the right post at 8:20 of the second, right leg bent under him, no weight on the way off, did not return.
• The backup file: Korpisalo week-to-week on IR since Oct. 1, Martin day-to-day in Hartford, Garand the only healthy NHL option who dressed Friday.
• The next puck: Vancouver at the Garden on Sunday, Oct. 11, with Tampa Bay two nights later.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The structure: Ankle, knee, or something else; the club has only said lower-body.
• The calendar: No IR placement, no timeline, no starter named for Sunday.
• The recall: Tung is the logical call if Martin cannot go; the club has not announced it.

Garand will almost certainly start against Vancouver if Shesterkin cannot take a morning skate. Tung is the name that keeps coming up as the partner. Free agents still unsigned around the league include veterans who have started in this league, and Drury can pick up a phone. That was not in motion when Shesterkin left the ice on Friday, and none of it was confirmed a day later.

Sullivan had no update after the game, Korpisalo’s status did not change, and the right leg that hit the post still had not been named. The Rangers’ next public word on Shesterkin is the one the room is waiting on before the Canucks arrive.