Rangers backup goalie Jonathan Quick is closing in on major milestone
Jonathan Quick is 38 now and no longer the goalie who helped the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup twice more than a decade ago. These days, he’s in his second season as the backup goalie for the New York Rangers, the team he grew up watching as a boy in Connecticut. And he’s formed a solid 1-2 punch in goal with Igor Shesterkin in New York.
Shesterkin recently made NHL history by signing an eight-year, $92 million contract that makes him the highest-paid goalie all-time. Of course, Quick is close to making some history of his own.
With 398 victories in his career, Quick already holds the mark for most wins by a U.S.-born goaltender. Two more wins will make him the 15th goalie in NHL history to reach the 400-win mark — and just the third among active goaltenders. Only Marc-Andre Fleury of the Minnesota Wild (567 wins, second all-time) and Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers (412, 11th) have more victories among active goalies.
Quick’s been an impactful backup goaltender since signing with the Rangers in the summer of 2023. He was 18-6-2 last season with a 2.62 goals-against average in a resurgent season. It came after Quick appeared to be all but finished in 2022-23, when he wound up with the Vegas Golden Knights after being traded away by the Kings, with whom he had spent the first 15 seasons of his career. Of course, Quick still won his third Stanley Cup championship when Vegas won it all in 2023, albeit as the No. 3 goalie.
This season, Quick is 5-4-0 with a 2.73 GAA and a .906 save percentage. He won his first five decisions, two by shutout, but has lost his past four — largely because of a lack of help from his teammates. So, he’s been sitting on 398 wins since defeating the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 30.
It’s not impossible that Quick could not only reach 400 wins this season but move past a couple of members of the 400-win club — Chris Osgood (401) and Hall of Famers Grant Fuhr (403) and Glenn Hall (407) — on the all-time list.
Quick also compares well to the two other active goalies who’ve reached 400 wins. Like Quick, both Fleury and Bobrovsky are Stanley Cup champions; Fleury was on Cup-winning teams with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, 2016, and 2017, and Bobrovsky led the Florida Panthers to the Cup in June.
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Rangers’ Jonathan Quick compares favorably to other 400-win goalies
Quick has never won the Vezina Trophy as the League’s top goaltender — Bobrovsky won it twice with the Columbus Blue Jackets (2012-13 and 2016-17; Fleury won with the Golden Knights in 2020-21. However, Quick is the only one of the three to win Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs; he did it 2012 after the Kings won the Stanley Cup for the first time in their history by defeating the New Jersey Devils in the Final.
Fleury began his NHL career in 2003-04, well before Quick (2007-08) and Bobrovsky (2010-11), so it’s not surprising that he has played in a lot more games (1,036; Quick has played in 791, Bobrovsky in 724) and has far more wins. But the three are almost even in two of key stats for goalies — goals-against average and save percentage.
Quick has the edge in GAA at 2.47; Bobrovsky is at 2.59 and Fleury at 2.60. “Bob” has the edge in save percentage at .914, slightly ahead of Fleury (.912, but .898 this season) and Quick (.911).
No active goalie is close to Quick’s win total. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (308) is the only other active goalie to reach the 300-win mark. If he remains healthy, Vasilevskiy is all but certain to surpass 400 career wins, but it likely won’t happen for at least another 2-3 seasons.
The Rangers depend on Quick to be a reliable backup, and his three Stanley Cup championships also make him an important part of the locker room, whether that means sharing experiences or simply pushing his teammates. It’s no longer a question of if Quick will reach 400 career wins, it’s a question of when.
Though with the Rangers in a complete freefall with just four wins in the past 17 games, the wait may continue for a bit.
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