The Aggressive Option: Commit to the Team’s Favorite

As with Antti Raanta and Cam Talbot, we’ve seen the Rangers aggressively move goaltenders in trades to teams that envision a new franchise netminder. That is an option again. Georgiev is more likely to have a trade market, as he is more of a known commodity at the NHL level. Could his performances against Toronto cause a bidding war among Atlantic division teams in need of a goalie? The easiest one to leverage would be Ottawa, as owner Eugene Melnyk seems to care more about beating the Leafs than anything else. Buffalo and Florida will be in the market for a new starter as well. A comparable return could be the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th round picks the Rangers received when they shipped Talbot to Edmonton in 2015.

Trading Shestyorkin would be much tougher. His ceiling is higher, but he is a complete unknown in the NHL. NHL GMs are always hesitant to give up significant assets for goalie prospects. It will be hard to turn him into a return comparable to the one Georgiev could command. However, the one knock on Shestyorkin’s game is that he rarely faced the volume of shots in Russia that he would in the NHL. It is possible that such a workload could overwhelm him, and he never lives up to his potential. If New York feels this is the case, it could be better to move on while his stock is high.