The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Vince Mercogliano on Shesterkin's Injury, Dorofeyev's Slow Start, and More

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by New York Rangers beat reporter Vince Mercogliano of The Athletic and SNY to break down the season-ending injury to Igor Shesterkin and what it means for the Rangers moving forward. They discuss New York's options in goal, potential trade targets, whether the Rangers should be willing to sacrifice future assets to find a replacement, and how this year's team compares to last season. Plus, they examine the early-season performances of Pavel Dorofeyev and Gabe Perreault and what they've brought to the lineup. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're going to talk about the New York Rangers. Our Rangers beat reporter for the athletic, on-air analyst for SNY TV. Is our good friend Vince McCogliano who joins me now. Now, Vince, we're just talking, Zach and I were just talking about bets. So the stupidest thing I ever did, and thankfully, it didn't sting me because I made it with a very kind person. Stupidest bet I ever made, and I'm not much of a better, was loser of the bet over the Super Bowl. has to surrender their unlocked phone to someone else for a full hour. Would you ever make that bet with anybody and risk surrendering your phone,

but also maybe being able to just totally submarine someone's life? And it really underscores how much you can just, like, completely destroy someone in one hour with these things now. Yeah, it probably depends who I'm making that bet with. I don't know if I would do that with just anybody. Well, that's it. I did it with Heather Hisccox, who is my host on the CBC Morning Show. about a million years ago.

So she was very kind. She was very, very kind with me. But if I did it with like Zach, like that would be at the end of his career, he'd be single, he'd be penniless, he'd be unemployable, like all of it. It would, I would just ravage him. But hey, listen, thanks so much for stopping by today.

Happy to be here. Love the hat, by the way. That's sharp. Thanks. That's looking good. Let's talk about the Rangers. Then there's a whole bunch to get into here as well. But let's rewind to Friday.

and the Shasturkin injury. Like right away, I'm watching this game. And as soon as he backed that right foot into the post and went down immediately and you saw the blocker pounding on the ice, you knew this wasn't good, tried to get him up, could put no weight on it. But what cinched it for me, Vince, is when they got him on the bench and they started to try to walk him down the hall and he couldn't move. I was like, this is more than just a couple of weeks. This one's going to be bad. Take us back to that Friday for you watching that thing.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'll be honest. It feels like we've had a handful of these moments with Igor over the years where the reaction to an injury makes you really fearful that it's going to be something long term. He's missed time plenty of seasons before, but it's never been like an out for the season kind of situation. So in the back of my mind, I was wondering like, yeah, it looked bad, but, you know, as they

evaluate and run all the tests, obviously they did an MRI on Saturday morning, you know, how's it going to check out? You obviously fear the knee. That's ultimately what it ended up being. I was able to confirm that yesterday. It is the right knee. He is having surgery. It's going to be a lengthy rehab.

That's why the team is ruling him out for the remainder of the season. So really, really unfortunate break for the Rangers because they had. been playing really well and the vibes around this team in the first couple weeks of the season were like the polar opposite of what we've observed and what I've observed up close for the last couple years. It feels like it could be a really deflating thing for them. Igor is so, I mean, I can't overstate it how critically important he is to this team. In my opinion, he might be the best goalie in the league and he certainly is a guy that, you know, I wrote about this actually the day he got hurt that morning. The Rangers, I think, were playing much better in a lot of ways.

I think we're seeing a lot better buy-in into Mike Sullivan's system, which we can talk about. But you look at some of the underlying stuff, they were basically playing teams pretty even. But the thing for the Rangers, when you have Igor Nett, if you're even with shot attempts and scoring chances and things of that nature, but you always have the best goalie on the ice, you're going to have a pretty good chance to win every night. Now they're not going to have that luxury. and it's going to be really, really interesting to see where they take it from here. You know, they're saying this doesn't change anything. We're not going to try to play any differently.

We like what we're building. And they're determined to kind of march forward here. It's obviously so early in the season. Nobody's going to wave the white flag at this point. But there really could not have been a more deflating injury for them, just given how important he is to the team and how good he looked. I mean, to me, this was as sharp as he has looked in any season, at least to start since he won the Vesna,

what was it like four or five years ago now? So it looked like he was trending toward having a really, really good season and now that all kind of comes crashing down. You know, he's one of my favorite goaltenders to watch. And when he first burst onto the scene in the NHL, I had never seen a goaltender, Vince, anticipate shots better than him. It's almost as if he could, like, see that split second into the future. Like nobody, and then had a number of goalie experts talk to me about how, you know,

he's just such an elite skater that it looks like. like he's predicting everything, but really he's just a better skater than any other goaltender in the NHL. And so it might look like an optical illusion, but there's a lot of work going into every save that he's making here. I'll tell you what, like when he's on his game, there is nobody better. There is nobody better. It's to the point where I don't know if you do this.

You go through each roster at the beginning of every season and say, okay, so who's the guy that this team can't afford to lose? Like, Barkoff was the obvious one for the Florida Panthers and playing up. we saw last season. And for the Rangers, the obvious one is Igor Shisterkin. So now it's up to Dylan Garand. And let me go around the block with something here for you. So I was shocked that he didn't get claimed.

I was stunned that Dylan Garand didn't get claimed. Okay, I get it. Teams have a default to bigger goaltenders because teams bluntly like accidental saves. And when you're a big goalie, sometimes you make accidental saves and teams like that for the obvious reason. Okay, fine. So he clears. And I was thinking back to last year when all I was going on about is how Bruins better not put Mikey Di Pietro on waivers. He's going to get claimed. He's going to be an Edmonton older tomorrow, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He doesn't get claimed. And now he's the backup in

Boston playing behind Jeremy Swaman, but he didn't get claimed last year either. Both these guys got placed on waivers because of Jonas Corpusallo. Both these gold tenders were placed on waivers by the exact same guy. I thought at the end of the year, the Rangers were ready to hand Dylan Garand the backup net mining spot. It's his ball to run with now. Were you shocked that we even got to this point

that the Rangers even made the move for Corpusala when they had Garand right there ready for that next step? Or was what you're talking about, the threat of the injury to Shishturiken, a sort of motivating factor for picking up Corpusalo who, ironically enough himself, is injured. I wasn't shocked that they brought in a veteran. I fully expected that they would.

If you look at Chris Jury's history with the goaltending, especially the backup goalie position, he's always wanted a veteran there. He had Yarrow Halak initially. Then he had Jonathan Quick for a few years. So I expected that there would be some level of competition. I was a little surprised that they did it via trade, and especially that they did it for a guy with a $3 million cap hit.

I thought they would go for like a cheaper, one million-ish dollar kind of guy that could compete with Garand, but, you know, wasn't coming in with all signs pointing to him kind of being gifted the role. Like, it really never felt like a fair fight for Garand, especially with the abbreviated training camp. The entire training camp, Corpusalo was practicing with the NHL guys and Garand was practicing with the guys that you expected to go to the AHL. So I think it was frustrating for him. Now, he's said all the right things publicly. This is just my read on the situation. He, has really paid his dues. He's had four basically full seasons with their

HL team in Hartford. He's played behind some really bad teams there, but actually a couple of years ago when they made the playoffs, he was lights out. He's been among the least of their problems with Hartford. And I felt like, you know, my read on getting to know him over the years and talking to people that have either worked with him or in the organization, like he's just viewed as a super focused kid really, really hard working. But for whatever reason, the Rangers have been reluctant to fully trust him with that number two role. And I agree with you.

I thought putting him on waivers was a big risk. Now, I think they looked at it as a calculated gamble. Doing it at a time when so many other players were hitting waivers, I think they felt like there was a better chance of him sneaking through then than had they carried free goalies to begin the year and then tried to do it at a later date. Obviously, so I believe it was Clay Stevenson from the capitals.

You got claimed by Winnipeg. So they obviously had an inkling that they would be able to get them through. I'm sure there was some level of nerves about that. And to me, it was such a risky thing because the Rangers are really thin at the goalie position behind Chesterkin. They bring in Corpusalo, who is now hurt. But then after Garand, who's essentially their number three, they really don't have much at all. They signed Spencer Martin, who's bounced around like he was overseas to begin the year last year, has not really put up any numbers that inspire any kind of hope for a long time now.

And they haven't drafted a guy in the third round this year. But before then, I think they had gone four or five years without taking a goalie in the draft. So their system really doesn't have a lot of options at the goaltender position. And to me, it just felt like if you lose Garand and an injury happens, which now two injuries have happened, you're in a really, really tough spot. So they obviously, again, it was a calculated risk. I think they were fairly confident that he would make it through. but they are very lucky that that turned out to be the case because now they have a guy who,

listen, he's got a lot to prove it's such a small sample size, but I wrote this again last night. Every test that's been put in front of him, he's passed so far. I think he's got like seven or eight NHL appearances, so a long way to go still. But there's been nothing, at least to my amateur eye, that I see that doesn't tell me, you know, this guy I think at least has what it takes to maybe be a decent NHL backup. And now he's going to get the runway. like corpusallo's out for four more weeks is what the rangers are saying and all indications that i'm getting are that it's garan's job at least until then so he's going to get a solid month of being the guy here

and a chance to state his case you know he's been waiting for this opportunity and they for whatever reasons didn't want to give it to him but now they have no choice and now you know it's kind of a cool story because it's his opportunity to run with just have like lundquist cam talbot vibes all over it Yeah, for sure. Again, listen, like, I'm not a technical goalie expert, but what I see from the guy is that he performs when given the opportunity. And from what I know about him, I've written a lot about him over the years. I've gotten to know him a little bit.

I've talked to his longtime goalie coach several times over the years. Everybody raves about his preparation, his pregame routine. He seems like a kid who does everything the right way. And at the very least, you know, is going to work his you know what off to be ready every single night. And he's performed to this point. So I'm kind of curious to see where it goes. I saw you mentioned Jonathan Quick in your piece over the weekend, too. Has he renewed his gym membership this weekend since Friday?

Listen, I've poked around on this a little bit. I'll say it this way. I don't know exactly where his head is at. Like if the Rangers came to him and said, hey, we want you to come back. I don't know what he would say. But my understanding is that to this point, the Rangers have not made any inquiries to that effect. So I don't think they're looking to go down that road is my sense at this stage.

Again, I think they're looking at it like, okay, Garand, it's put up or shut up time. We're going to give you a solid month here as the guy and see how you do. And then when Corpusallo comes back, they'll reassess at that point. If Garand is playing well, I think they stick with the hot hand, but they do feel like they have a fallback option on its way in Corpusala, who, again, they're saying is expected back in about four weeks. Pavold Dorofiev hasn't gone like first let me preface it this way as far as taken one-timers with force and accuracy and just like looking at like the artist like I love a good one-timer good lord I think we all do his his one-timers are gorgeous like just the things of beauty but so far it hasn't exactly been a great start for Dorofiev and saw that he got bounced around as well on the

and what's the plan here for Sullivan? Yeah, it's an interesting one. It's so early you don't want to overreact. It's a player who's coming to a new market with new expectations, new contract, all of that. And, you know, he still is relatively young. He's still, he's going to be 26 by the end of the month. But I think you've got to have some level of patience here to give him some time to adjust and all that. I will say that in doing my homework over him over the summer after the Rangers acquired him,

everybody says what you just said. The shot is high, high end. You're not going to find a better pure goal score. If he's put in a position to shoot, and this is something we have seen, like the Rangers, I feel like over the years have had a lot of players who are pass first, like Artemmy Panarin being a perfect example. MSG is known for the fans in that crowd yelling, shoot, because they get annoyed when these guys are making the extra pass all the time.

Dorofiev is not going to do that. Like he's going to pull the trigger, and I think that's something that the Rangers really needed in this lineup. What I've had people question, and again, I want to see more before I jumped at this conclusion myself, but is this a guy who can be the man? You know, he's not a dominant guy on the puck. He's not going to really, you know, create a lot or be a play driver in the sense

of like he's going to carry the puck through the neutral zone and make something happen on his own. Like he needs guys to facilitate for him, And the Rangers are now putting him in a position where they're kind of asking him to be the man. You know, in Vegas, what was he the third, maybe fourth option for them? In New York, he's arguably number one. So, you know, is he the caliber of all around player? Is he effective enough, you know, in a variety of ways offensively to maybe generate for himself at times?

Or is it going to be a situation where you got to have playmakers around him to get the best out of him? You know, the power play production has been really good over the years. I think 20 of his 37 goals around the power play last year. So you kind of figured that that would be a place where he can gain a little confidence and he can make a difference. So far it hasn't really clicked there. Last night's game was really interesting because to start the third period, Sullivan pulled him off of the top power play unit in favor of Gabe Perra,

who to Perrault, to Perot's credit, he's had a really encouraging start. So he earned it. But the same time, it's like, you know, Dora, of is like your shiny new object who you want to give every chance to succeed and you don't want to maybe mess with that confidence. So it's a delicate situation right out of the gate here. He's already moved him onto a different line last night. He was playing with Zabanajad, which he didn't do out of the gate. I was a little surprised about that. Now he is playing with the Rangers number one center along with Perra, who is a facilitator and you would think might be able to help him.

I thought that line looked like they weren't quite clicking. But again, it's only a only one game. It's just interesting because they're clearly still in a trial and error mode with him trying to figure out what works and how to unlock him. But so far, you know, I just feel like we haven't seen a player who looks super dynamic other than when he's shooting. It's just everything else where you're wondering like, how are you going to get this guy going? I think it's only one assist in his last five games, no goals. So we're already in a little bit of an early funk. And, you know, I want to see how he recovers from this. Why is this working? Let me get to Perrault.

He's flat out just fun to watch. Why is it working for him? Like what is Sullivan doing? You mentioned systems before. Like, how has this guy been able to jump in and right away six points in seven games, I believe? Yeah. Well, the first thing everybody talks about with Perrault is the hockey IQ. Like the way that he sees the ice, the playmaking ability is arguably already the best that the Rangers have.

And that's something that he's had a knack for his entire career. I know people, you know, going back to the National Development Program questioned, was he just the third wheel on that line with Will Smith and Ryan Leonard? You know, I've seen enough and heard from enough people where I don't think that was the case. Like, this is a guy who can very much create on his own. And what's really jumped out to me early in the season, because I think the big knock on him is he's a pretty slight kid. The skating has always been a question mark.

He spent the summer at the Prentice Group in Stanford, Connecticut, a lot of NHL guys go there. A lot of New York Rangers players go there. And in my experience over the years, guys that go and train with Ben Prentice come back more explosive. And you look at the data on NHL Edge for Perra so far. He's already blown past his max skating speed from last year. To the eye test, to me, I thought he looked quicker right out of the gate. And so last week, I went and started looking at some of the numbers now that we have at least a little bit of a sample size to look on. And I even said it to Perot the other day in the locker room. I was like, hey, I looked at those numbers. Your skating speed is up. And he kind of smirped. Like,

you knew he knew it. But he was like, oh, really? Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so I, to me, like, you know, if he can add the quickness and maintain it that we've seen early on in the season to create that little bit of separation where he then will have more of an opportunity to make the plays that we know he can make. Like, this is a legitimate top six winger, in my opinion, and a young player that I know the Rangers are very excited about. Going back to the Nashville draft, he absolutely broke the Pred's hearts. They were trying so hard to get Gabe, well, first they tried to get Will Smith and make the trade with San Jose.

It was on the story last week. But then they also tried to get Gabe Perrault, who Barry Trots absolutely adored and couldn't get up in front of the Rangers and couldn't get the Rangers to flip. They ended up taking Tanner Mollandike and the Rangers got Gabe Perrault. But I remember after that first round, Trots tried to get it. He wanted to come out of the first round with Will Smith and Gabe Perrault and couldn't get it done. But that was the one that I always swing back to like how different is the Western Conference

that Barry Trots can get what he wants out of that first round. Anyhow, let me ask about Alexei Lafran year. So our morning show, Morning Cup of Hockey, Johnny Lazarus and Kobe Cohen, came up with a bet today over Alexei Lafferan. Johnny thinks he's going to get 83 points or more. Colby's coming on the conservative side of this one. Vince break the tie. Alexei Lafranier.

83? 83 higher or lower? Preseason I wrote, I thought he could get over 70. So I, 83 point for game. I think he can sniff it. You know, I was, again, what I wrote preseason, I'll stick to it. I wrote, I thought something in the 70s was realistic for him, especially because remember with this guy, he has not really gotten consistent power play time in his career until now.

And I think getting that power play time with the top unit, which I know he's quietly longed for. You know, I've asked him about this a few times over the years and he always kind of says the right things. But you know for a young player like that, getting the points that you can get by getting those minutes, like that just does something for them. And this is something that he did talk about is feeling like, this is maybe the most confident he's ever been in his career.

And I think it's because he's getting uninterrupted time in the top six, uninterrupted time on the top power play unit. Mike Sullivan has really harped on him developing more of a game around the net. And not just, you know, to be like a grinding guy who's battling for position in front of the net all the time. But when he gets in close like that, his skill makes him more of a threat than maybe a guy who's just hunting for rebounds and tips. he's able to get some of those goals. And I think, again, that leads to more confidence because he's getting rewarded with more points. But we're also seeing him make some plays in tight that I think other traditional net front guys might not always have the skill to make.

So he's added that he still is able to make plays off the rush. We saw him make a really nice between the legs passed last night to spring J.T. Miller off the rush on the very first shift of the game, which is, I mean, that's a high level skill play where you have not only the vision to recognize. recognize that the play is there, but then the skill to pull it off. So he's another guy. There are things to be excited about with him. Like, do I think he's ever going to be a star? Maybe not. But again, I think he's a very legitimate top six winger who has gotten close to 60 points in a season a few times now. And when you factor in being on the power play all the time, like adding another 10, 15 points to that total seems very realistic to me. So him and Perrault are two players I think the Rangers have to feel really good about right now because you're seeing signs of growth

and they need young skill. They need young playmakers. That's been a big void for this team for a number of years. And those two guys, I think, inspire some hope that at least in a couple spots, they've found it. Let me throw, and this isn't a household name. This isn't one, like, unless you're a hardcore fan, you're going to know. I'm just curious your thoughts on him and how the team feels about him. Tycarche.

Let's end on him. That was another one of my preseason guys. I was saying on the first day of training camp to a couple of my fellow writers, I think this guy's going to get like 12 to 15 goals this year, like pretty easily. Like he's got a sneaky little offensive game. Another guy you talk about a shooting mentality, not afraid to let it rip. And his wrist shot is pretty darn good. Like I think underrated.

And then he's just one of those players who, you know, Sullivan always says he's a dog on a bone. Like he just plays like his hair is on fire. Every single shift. He four checks. And to me, one of the. big things that I've noticed that's different about this Rangers team early in the year is the buy-in and the cohesion when it comes to forechecking. Like Sullivan wants them to be aggressive and it all starts with the forecheck. And when the forecheck doesn't have teeth to it, then it just feels like the whole

thing kind of crumbles. I mean, you look around the league. All the best teams in the league, they forecheck well. And the Rangers, I think, are doing a better job of that early in the season. And Cartier is a guy that sets the tone in that regard. You know, he defends really hard. He forecheck's really hard. He's willing to do all the dirty work. And he also has some underrated touch. And he's got a shot. And so, you know, as a fourth liner, I think that guy is outstanding.

Actually, I talked to a scout over the summer. We were talking about Dorothea, but some other stuff. And unprompted, the scout said to me, I don't know how Seattle let that guy go. Oh, dude. He's the kind of player that every team wants in their lineup. And he's been a great fine for the Rangers. You have to give them credit. Like claiming him on waivers when they first did it.

I was like, oh, they've got all these young bottom six guys. Like, do they need another one? But no, he, he's got a different level to him than I think a lot of the other bottom six guys on this roster. And now you're seeing him play in the top six now. Like, is that going to be a permanent home for him? I don't know, but he can, he can hold his own. He's versatile. Yeah.

Like, that's it. Like, I guess it's been a really good fine. Again, like I go, I guess I'm, listen, Seattle's had a good start. And I'm really happy for them. But, like, the mistakes that they've made on waivers. I mean, Mark and Geeky's the ultimate one. and that was over like, what, like $500,000. But like the mistakes of that organization is made

when you have so many players playing a level higher than they probably should, and the players they've let go for free because of it. Like I just, I shake my head. And Tycar Chase is another great example, but good on the Rangers for, listen, was it last February, last January? They picked it off like smart, smart claim by the New York Rangers.

Vince, thanks for hopping on today. Really appreciate it. Continued success. And we'll monitor Alexi Lafranier here and see how he ends up at the cut mark of 83.5 between Las and Colby. So we'll stay on top of that one. Thanks, pal. You'll be good. Las is the biggest Lafranier cheerleader I know.

Oh, trust me. Oh, yeah. No, I know. Like the lines, as far as like the cheerleading squad for Alex, like, it starts behind Las. He's the guy. He's the guy at the front of the train. Thanks, pal. You'd be good. All right. Thanks, Jeff.