Rangers Don't Need to Overpay for Potential MVP Igor Shesterkin

The New York Rangers can celebrate another strong start to the regular season; the team is 8-2-1 and second in the Metropolitan Division behind the New Jersey Devils, who have played four more games. Igor Shesterkin continues to be the reason why the Rangers are winning, but the Blueshirts can't panic and justify that as a reason to pay the star goalie what he wants.

The Rangers are coming off a 5-2 win over the rival Islanders on Sunday after switching up the lines to generate more offense.

It remains to be seen if the Rangers stick with these lines, or if Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider reunite on the first line. The offense was humming to start the season but recently has fallen off after a 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, who knocked the Rangers out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

The offense managed two goals against the Anaheim Ducks and another two goals against the Ottawa Senators, but still managed to win both games, thanks to the efforts of their goaltenders. Backup Johnathon Quick started against the Ducks, while Shesterkin started against the Senators.

Shesterkin's case for a big deal

The 28-year old goaltender has played nearly perfect to start the season. Shesterkin is 6-2-1 with a .933 save percentage and a 2.22 goals against average. The Rangers record may have looked very different without Shesterkin, as he made 40 saves to win the game for the Rangers against Ottawa. In the 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals, the Rangers looked completely outmatched in 5v5 play, their big weakness last season. Shesterkin made 41 saves, but still lost. No doubt that Shesterkin knows the Rangers need him, and he'll be using that leverage now in the last year of his deal.

According to a tweet from ESPN, Shesterkin turned down an eight-year, $88 million dollar offer from the Rangers back in October that would've have paid him $11 million a year, the largest contract in goalie history. The fact that he turned that down proves he wants more than that.

In my opinion, no matter how good a goalie is, no team should pay him that much.

Case against a big contract for Shesterkin

Shesterkin is one of the best players on the Rangers, and as a fan, one of my favorites on the team.

But, positional value is something that needs to be considered. Other goaltenders that signed contracts this year near Shesterkin's level, such as Dallas' Jake Oettinger, signed for much less than what the Russian netminder is demanding.

The Rangers cannot panic and give Igor anything more than what they have already offered. New York signed Henrik Lundqvist to a deal when he was 31, and the team had to buy out his contract when his play was no longer worth what they gave him.

The Rangers are also limited in terms of cap space. And, with the contracts of other key players coming to an end, along with Alexi LaFreniere's new contract, New York needs to ensure that they can put a winning team around Shesterkin, which wouldn't be possible with a deal over $11 million a year.