Igor Shesterkin Admits Contract Negotiations Were Hard With Rangers

The Igor Shesterkin contract saga officially came to a close on Saturday as the superstar goalie signed an eight-year, $92 million contract extension with the New York Rangers.

On top of that, Shesterkin and his wife welcomed a baby daughter into their family on Sunday, marking a truly special weekend for the 28-year-old.

“I’m so happy right now,” Shesterkin said on Monday.

Before the start of the season, Shesterkin reportedly turned down an eight-year, $88 million extension from the Rangers and he emphasized on Monday that these were hard negotiations that caused a lot of outside noise.

“Like I said this means a lot for me. I think it wasn’t going to be easy — my agent told me it was hard negotiations, but I didn’t care about that,” Shesterkin said. “To be honest, it was pretty hard to take all this noise, but everything happened right now, everything is done and I can be ready for a game and be focused.”

Over the course of this year, Shesterkin repeatedly shrugged off the distractions and claimed he was not focused on them.

However, he finally admitted that the constant noise regarding him and his contract situation was not so easy to deal with.

“Sometimes it was pretty hard, especially after bad games,” Shesterkin said. “You just try to go to the next day. But it follows you and everyone talks about it.”

Now Shesterkin has only one goal in mind: win a Stanley Cup.

“We will try to bring the Cup back to New York,” Shesterkin said.