Jaroslav Halak provides experience as valuable Rangers backup

There are only so many roles for an NHL goaltender (they’re pretty much either a starter or a backup), but Jaroslav Halak is well-acquainted with both jobs after playing for six different teams over 16 years in the league. 

The Rangers are Halak’s seventh team, and his third in the past three seasons. With all that time in the NHL, Halak is now the epitome of a seasoned netminder, which was exactly what the Rangers needed after trading a frustrated Alexandar Georgiev to Colorado and losing Keith Kinkaid in free agency to Boston. 

Halak was drafted by the Canadiens in the ninth round (No. 271) in 2003. His 7-0-0 start at Bell Centre made him the first goaltender to win his first seven decisions at home since the Flyers’ Bob Froese in 1982-83. Halak has played alongside some elite goalies, including the Bruins’ Tuukka Rask and Montreal’s future Hall-of-Famer, Carey Price. 

In 2009-10, Halak stole the No. 1 job from Price, and then helped the Canadiens rally from a 3-1 series deficit in the first round of the playoffs to upset the top-seeded Capitals. He saved 131 of 134 shots in the final three games of that series and set a Canadiens playoff record with 53 saves in Game 6. 

He has had seasons with tantalizing highs, such as when he finished fourth in the NHL with a 1.97 goals-against average and won the William M. Jennings Trophy, along with his Blues teammate Brian Elliott, who led the league with a 1.56 GAA. 

There also were lows, such as when Halak was traded from St. Louis to Buffalo and didn’t play in a single game before he was flipped to Washington five days later at the 2014 trade deadline. 

All that experience has shaped Halak into the netminder he is today — and the Rangers should benefit. 

“I think being a number one, you will play pretty much every night and even if you have a bad game, you will get out there sooner rather than later,” said Halak, who gave up five goals on 26 shots in the Rangers’ 5-4 preseason loss to the Bruins on Wednesday night. “When you’re a backup, you can’t necessarily have a bad game. If you have one of those off nights and you happen to be in the net, you got to wait for the next game. It stings a little more, hurts a little more and you have to think about it more. As a goalie, you have to have a short memory. 

“What happened yesterday happened yesterday, but sometimes it’s harder to do that than not.” 

Halak noted that it would be anybody’s dream to play for an Original Six team like the Rangers and to play in New York, but it was an easy sell to join a young, up-and-coming club that went to the Eastern Conference Final last season. Moving around so much as of late, however, has naturally been tough on his family. 

Still, the mutual interest between the Rangers and Halak evidently made for a perfect match. The Slovakian goaltender is now getting a chance to work with goaltending whisperer — er, Rangers director of goaltending — Benoit Allaire. It’s probably not the usual dynamic Allaire is used to, however, since Halak, at 37, isn’t in a position to be making drastic changes to his game. 

Halak said Allaire has worked with him on maintaining what he already has in his game, in addition to tweaking minor things. It’s still the early days of his tenure in New York, but Halak is settling in with the Rangers, working with Allaire and playing behind Igor Shesterkin. 

“He’s an elite goalie, he’s the number one,” Halak said. “He proved that last year all season. That was one thing, he had been consistent all season long. It’s awesome to see. He works hard in practices. So far we get along and hopefully it’ll only grow and we’ll get to be better friends than colleagues.”