Welcome to another edition of Around the NHL. It’s been an atypically busy week with the 4 Nations Face-Off roster announcements and a regular schedule of games, but we’re bringing you a special Saturday version. New York is the media capital of the world and for one day at least, they were the epicentre of the hockey world as well, as the Rangers made a series of franchise-altering moves on Friday.

Let’s get right into it!

Igor Shesterkin is arguably the NHL’s best goalie and now he’ll certainly be paid like it. New York locked up its franchise star to a eight-year extension reportedly worth $92 million, as first reported by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.

Cash rules everything around me, Method Man famously intoned, and that’s now certainly true of a fellow New York legend. Shesterkin is the highest-paid goaltender in the NHL and will be under contract with the Rangers through 2033. He will be 37 by the time his new extension ends. New York is making a calculated bet that Shesterkin will be able to retain his all-world form through at least the first five years of the deal, while anticipating a major rise in the salary cap, before being able to stomach his eventual decline.

Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy during the 2021-22 season and has been named an All-Star in consecutive campaigns. After a terrific October, Shesterkin’s form has dipped through the opening quarter and change of the season but the Rangers are betting on his run of play during the past four seasons where’s been a bonafide star. It’s a further indicator of their win-now mentality as well, and Shesterkin is the face of the franchise, during a window in which they’re expected to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994.

You almost have to be relieved for Jacob Trouba, who was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Anaheim will retain all of Trouba’s $8 million cap hit, while New York receives a solid No. 5 defenceman in Vaakanainen, when it would have otherwise attempted to place Trouba on waivers. Trouba was formerly New York’s captain and refused to waive his no-trade clause, in large part due to the fact that he didn’t want to disrupt his wife’s career. Dr. Kelly Tyson-Trouba is amid her residency at a New York hospital and Trouba didn’t want to leave the city.

“I’ll be honest, I was put in a position this summer to make a decision between my career and my family,” he said Friday. “I chose my family. I would choose my family 100 times over again. I don’t feel bad about that.”

Trouba was traded by the Winnipeg Jets to the Rangers in June 2019, and he quickly signed a seven-year extension worth $56 million the following month. Friday’s trade brings a bitter end to his tenure, which culminated in a President’s Trophy-winning campaign last year and two conference finals appearances.

“I don’t like that it was made public necessarily or how everything unfolded so publicly, but I guess that’s part of New York and what happens,” Trouba said via The Athletic’s Peter Baugh. “It made it difficult to play with that hanging over everything.”

“And today, the result is the result. I guess I’m happy with moving forward but maybe not overly thrilled with how it went down. In my opinion, things could have been handled better. I’m not blaming anybody or anything. How it happened, I felt it was kind of an unfortunate ending to a lot of good times in New York.”

I want to be a part of it, New York, New York! The city so nice they named it twice has provided us with two notebook items, and this wraps up your Saturday edition of Around the NHL.