Ex-Rangers goalie selected before Igor Shesterkin dresses for first NHL game in 7 years with Lightning

Goaltender Brandon Halverson, who was selected by the New York Rangers two rounds before Igor Shesterkin in the 2014 NHL Draft but had not played in the League since his lone appearance with them seven years ago, dressed as the backup goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday — one day after signing a two-year NHL contract with the Bolts.
Halverson, wearing No. 33, was on the bench backing up Andrei Vasilevskiy against the Senators, the team he faced when he made his first NHL appearance on Feb. 17, 2018, relieving Henrik Lundqvist in a 6-3 loss at Canadian Tire Centre. He had not dressed for another NHL game until Tuesday.
The two-way deal Halverson signed Monday is worth $775,000 annually at the NHL level and extends through the end of the 2025-26 season.

The 28-year-old was recalled from Syracuse, the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, as he was enjoying his best pro season. Halverson was 12-7-7 with a .918 save percentage, 2.20 goals-against average and four shutouts in 26 games for the Crunch this season while playing under an AHL contract. Among all AHL goaltenders who have played at least 20 games, Halverson is tied for first in shutouts, tied for second in goals-against average and is sixth in save percentage.
Vasilevskiy, a two-time Stanley Cup winner who’s also won the Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy, is locked in as the Lightning’s No. 1 goalie. But Tampa Bay has been dealing with some uncertainty because of an injury to backup Jonas Johansson – and Halverson’s impressive play at Syracuse earned him a call-up. He could get his first NHL start this weekend, when the Lightning play back-to-back afternoon road games against the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens.
Halverson was the Rangers’ first pick (second round, No. 59 overall) in 2014 and turned pro 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 remained in Russia and became a star in the KHL until he signed with the Rangers on May 3, 2019, and arrived in North America for the 2019-20 season.
By then, Halverson was already well-traveled.
Ex-Rangers goalie Halverson dresses for first NHL game since 2018
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 Lundqvist and made his NHL debut after “The King” was pulled in the third period of a game against the 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 Sunday.
But the Rangers returned Halverson to AHL Hartford the next day, and he didn’t dress for another NHL game until Tuesday.

He wound up being the odd man out in New York. With Shesterkin having signed with the Rangers, Lundqvist still on hand and promising newcomer Alexandar Georgiev also seeking playing time, there was no place for Halverson after he split 2018-19 between Hartford and Maine of the ECHL. 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, Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate, 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 he excelled at the AHL level, going 7-3-3 in 14 games with a 2.18 goals-against average, .913 save percentage and one shutout. He was named Syracuse’s starter in the Calder Cup Playoffs, when he was 3-4 but finished with a 2.19 GAA and .916 save percentage.
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