The New York Rangers were in obvious need of a backup goaltender for reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin after they traded their No. 2, Alexandar Georgiev, to the Colorado Avalanche last week.
Shortly after the NHL free agent market opened Wednesday, the Broadway Blueshirts found their Georgiev replacement. As reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, New York has signed Jaroslav Halak to a one-year, $1.55 million contract.
Halak, 37, will join his seventh NHL franchise after spending 2021-22 with the Vancouver Canucks backing up Thatcher Demko. Despite being one of the sport’s smallest goaltenders at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Halak forged a solid career as a starter or 1A/1B during his tenures with the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues, most notably when he carried the Habs past the heavily favored Washington Capitals in the 2009-10 playoffs.
Halak was mostly effective as a platoon netminder with the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins in his 30s as well. All told, Halak holds a .916 career save percentage across 556 career games, including 515 starts. He has quietly won 285 games, good for 47th on the NHL’s all time list.
The question he’ll have to answer in 2022-23 is: how much does he have left? Halak’s SV% has dipped to .904 in his past two seasons after he long held the reputation as one of the league’s best backups.
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