Igor Shesterkin Named NHL All-Star
Just before the puck dropped on most of the games around the NHL last night, the news of who would be representing the Eastern Conference at the NHL’s All-Star Weekend took the internet by storm. Hockey insider Chris Johnston Tweeted out on Wednesday that the NHL would be announcing each team’s All-Star representative on Thursday leaving room for fans to vote in the remaining 12 players.
The player that would be representing the New York Rangers would be goaltender Igor Shesterkin. There’s no question Shesterkin is one of the best goalies in the league but even the most die-hard Rangers fans were a bit surprised by this. Shesterkin has had a fine season so far but it hasn’t quite been anywhere close to his best which to be far, is a pretty high standard. It wasn’t even that as much as the fact that Artemiy Panarin has been having such a monster of a season as he currently ranks top-five in goals and points in the entire league. This left fans baffled as to why the Rangers forward wasn’t the shoe-in selection for the New York Rangers.
The Rangers official Twitter account provided some clarity on the decision after the Rangers 4-1 win against Chicago, as it appears Panarin is expecting his second child around the time of the All-Star break. As a result, the Breadman was not in consideration and for pretty good reason.
While under normal circumstances, Artemiy Panarin should have been the easy choice for the Rangers, this shouldn’t discredit the accomplishment for Igor Shesterkin by any means. This will be Igor’s second consecutive season serving as an NHL All-Star for the New York Rangers. In 24 games started this season, Shesterkin has put up a .908 save percentage with a record of 16-8-0. He’s currently fifth in the league for wins by a netminder.
The Rangers are promoting several of their top players for vans to vote into the twelve remaining spots. That list includes Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafrenière, Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox. More information on how to vote for your favorite players can be found here.
And here is the full list of the 32 players already named to the All-Star teams.