Ex-Rangers goalie selected before Igor Shesterkin eyes NHL return with Lightning
Goaltender Brandon Halverson, who was selected by the New York Rangers two rounds before Igor Shesterkin in the 2014 NHL Draft but hasn’t played in the League since his lone appearance with them in 2018, is one of six goalies at training camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning as he works toward a hoped-for NHL return.
The 28-year-old native of Traverse City, Michigan, 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 his home country 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.
He split 2016-17, his first pro season, between the Rangers’ ECHL affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina, and the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack, 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 and is Shesterkin’s backup, is the 10th.
Halverson’s career since that night in Ottawa hasn’t gone the way he’d planned.
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After Rangers debut, Brandon Halverson’s career has been long, winding road
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.
Halverson 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.
“The only thing that kept me going was just the dream and knowing that something was going to break through,” Halverson told Patrick Williams of AHL.com. “I’m going to get rewarded in some sort of way. I just have to keep working hard, and that’s just been my mindset this entire time.
Halverson went to camp last year 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 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. And he was Syracuse’s starter in the Calder Cup Playoffs, when he was 3-4 but finished with a 2.19 GAA and .916 save percentage.
However, Halverson faces a tough challenge in his efforts to get back to the NHL. Andrei 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. Jonas Johansson (26 games before being injured) and Mat Tomkins (six) each spent time with Tampa Bay last season; Tomkins also played 30 games for Syracuse before his recall.
But the former Rangers prospect is not about to be deterred.
“When there’s no light, you’ve just got to make your own.”
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