The 2026-27 NHL season for the New York Rangers has not gotten off to the kind of start that they were hoping for, and it was a familiar story that plagued them last year.
The Rangers were shut out by a 3-0 final score on Tuesday evening against the Original 6 rival Boston Bruins, the same fate that they suffered in their season opener last fall.
And the news hasn’t gotten any easier for the Rangers, as they announced that a key offseason acquisition has already landed on Injured Reserve.
The New York Rangers Have Placed Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo On Injured Reserve
According to Rangers beat writer Mollie Walker of The New York Post, the club is placing goaltender Joonas Korpisalo on Injured Reserve; they’ve also called up Dylan Garand.
“Rangers putting Joonas Korpisalo on IR. He’s week-to-week with a lower-body injury,” Walker wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Per Rangers Insider Peter Baugh, Korpisalo is considered week-to-week, and Garand could actually make his season debut on Friday night for New York, unless they choose to utilize starter Igor Shesterkin in goal both on Thursday and Friday.
“Joonas Korpisalo is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Dylan Garand is now likely to make his season debut Friday, assuming the Rangers don’t use Igor Shesterkin on both ends of the back-to-back,” Baugh wrote.
Korpisalo is skating in his first year with the Rangers after being acquired in an offseason trade from the Bruins to serve as backup for Shesterkin following the retirement of Jonathan Quick.
Joonas Korpisalo Is In His First Year With The Rangers
Korpisalo, who was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round (62nd overall pick) of the 2012 NHL Draft, played nine years for the club before eventually becoming their starter after Sergei Bobrovsky’s departure.
He had a standout 2020 playoff run, including two shutouts against the Toronto Maple Leafs and an NHL-record 85 saves in a five-overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the “bubble” in Toronto amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Korpisalo was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 2023 before signing a five-year, $20 million deal with the Ottawa Senators that summer. But after only one season with the Senators, he was traded to Boston in the Linus Ullmark deal.
Korpisalo went 11-10-3 with a 2.90 goals-against average and three shutouts for the Bruins in 2024-25. The Rangers then acquired him from Boston during the summer in return for Kalle Väisänen and a 2028 fourth round draft pick.
Brutal News Hits Rangers as Key Offseason Acquisition Lands on Injured Reserve