Ex-Rangers goalie taken before Shesterkin recalled by Lightning
Goaltender Brandon Halverson, selected two rounds ahead of Igor Shesterkin by the New York Rangers in the 2014 NHL Draft, returned to the NHL on Thursday when the Tampa Bay Lightning recalled him from Syracuse of the American Hockey League.
The Rangers picked Halverson in the second round (No. 59 overall) in 2014, then chose Shesterkin in the fourth round (No. 118). Shesterkin came to North America from Russia in 2019 and had become one of the NHL’s top goaltenders; Halverson made one appearance in relief for the Rangers in a 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 17, 2018.
The Rangers let him become a free agent in 2019. He signed a two-year AHL contract with Syracuse on Nov. 28, 2023, and inked a two-year, two-way contract with Tampa Bay on Feb. 3, 2025. Halverson’s second NHL appearance, and first start, came with the Lightning in Salt Lake City on March 22, when he allowed five goals in a 6-4 loss to the Utah Hockey Club (now the Utah Mammoth).
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said starter Andrei Vasilevskiy is not available for Thursday’s home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jonas Johansson will get the start, with Halverson as his backup. However, Cooper also said he expects Vasilevskiy to be ready for Tampa Bay’s home game against the New York Islanders on Saturday. Vasilevskiy made 21 saves on Tuesday in a 2-1 loss to the Isles at UBS Arena.
Vasilevskiy missed most of training camp due to injury, and Halverson made three preseason appearances for the Lightning during the preseason, going 2-0-0 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. Despite that, Tampa Bay sent him back to Syracuse. In 13 games with the Crunch, he’s 9-4-0 with a .901 save percentage, 2.58 goals-against average and two shutouts.
The 6-foot-5, 235-pound netminder has won four in a row, including a 37-save performance in his last start, a 5-3 win against Utica on Nov. 29. Halverson was an AHL All-Star in 2024-25, and he ranks tied for third for shutouts, 11th for GAA and 14th for saves (299) among AHL goaltenders with at least 10 games played this season.
Halverson has played in 122 AHL games with Syracuse, Tucson and the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers’ top affiliate; he is 56-47-15 with a .901 save percentage, 2.75 GAA, eight shutouts and two assists.
Ex-Rangers goalie Halverson gets recalled by Lightning
The native of Traverse City, Michigan, turned pro with the Rangers organization in 2016-17 after twice playing for the United States at the World Junior Championship — winning a bronze medal in 2016. Shesterkin was taken in the fourth round (No. 118) that year, but the Moscow native opted to remain in Russia and became a star in the KHL until he signed with the Rangers on May 3, 2019, and came to North America for the 2019-20 season.
By then, Halverson was already well-traveled.
He split 2016-17, his first pro season, between the Rangers’ ECHL affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina, and Hartford, then did the same in 2017-18 — with the exception of Feb. 17, 2018. That’s when Halverson backed up Henrik Lundqvist and made his NHL debut after “The King” was pulled in the third period of a game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre, having allowed five goals on 27 shots.
Halverson stopped five of six shots in 12:33 of playing time in a 6-3 loss. That appearance made him the eighth U.S.-born goaltender to play for the Rangers. Keith Kinkaid became No. 9 when he played in 2020-21 and 2021-22, and Jonathan Quick, who joined New York last season as Shesterkin’s backup, is the 10th. Quick became the first U.S.-born NHL goalie with 400 wins when the Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Feb. 2, 2025.
But Halverson’s career since that night in Ottawa hasn’t gone the way he’d planned.
With Shesterkin under contract with the Rangers, Lundqvist still on hand and promising newcomer Alexandar Georgiev also battling for playing time, there was no place for Halverson after he split 2018-19 between Hartford and Maine of the ECHL.
Instead, he became a free agent, spent most of 2019-20 with Norfolk of the ECHL and played four games for ECHL Wheeling in 2020-21 before a high ankle sprain ended his season.
Halverson didn’t play at all in 2021-22 when he was recovering from knee and wrist surgery (instead, he worked on a farm), then returned to the ice in 2022-23 with Bayreuth in Germany’s second division.
Halverson went to camp in the fall of 2023 on a PTO with Syracuse and won four of five decisions before earning a two-year AHL contract from the Crunch in late November. He ended up splitting time between Syracuse and Orlando, the Lightning’s ECHL affiliate, but excelled at the AHL level, where he was 7-3-3 in 14 games with a 2.18 goals-against average, .913 save percentage and one shutout. It was the best showing of his professional career to that point. He was named Syracuse’s starter in the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs, when he was 3-4 but finished with a 2.19 GAA and .916 save percentage.
