Korpisalo Set to Return as Rangers Reshuffle Goalie Room and Send Reimer Down

The New York Rangers' goalie carousel is spinning again, and this time the change looks like relief rather than damage control.

Joonas Korpisalo will be activated off injured reserve on Saturday, according to Newsday's Colin Stephenson, after missing the start of the season with a lower-body injury and an infection. To make room, the Rangers assigned James Reimer to the minor leagues after the veteran cleared waivers on Friday. The swap finally gives New York the backup it meant to have all along — and gives Dylan Garand, the rookie who has been carrying the crease almost single-handed, a chance to breathe.

Garand's workload has bordered on the absurd. The 24-year-old has started 10 of the Rangers' last 11 games, and on Thursday night in the 3-2 win over Philadelphia he played his 12th consecutive game, stopping 23 shots. He has held up well under the strain, posting a 6-6-1 record and a .906 save percentage this season, and across 16 career NHL games he owns eight wins and a .916 save percentage. But a rookie playing every night is not a plan, it is a stopgap, and the Rangers knew it.

The men filling in behind him showed why. Neither Reimer nor Spencer Martin managed a full game for New York, and both struggled badly in their brief auditions. Martin allowed three goals on 18 shots in 35 minutes of action. Reimer was worse, conceding three goals on just eight shots in 20 minutes in his only Rangers appearance. The numbers were ugly, and the Rangers moved quickly once Korpisalo neared a return.

Reimer, 38, heads back to Hartford, where he has actually been excellent. He recorded a shutout in his only appearance with the Wolf Pack this season, stopping all 35 shots he faced. It was a rare minor-league outing for a goaltender who has played just one other AHL game in the last 15 years, a six-goal loss with Belleville last season.

Korpisalo arrived in New York on July 1 in a trade with Boston, and he brings the one thing the Rangers' crease has lacked most: experience. The Finn is in the fourth year of a five-year, $20 million contract he signed with Ottawa in 2023, and he has seen just about everything the position can throw at a goalie. He played 55 games for the Senators in 2023-24, going 21-26-4 with an .890 save percentage, a season that ended with him being moved the other way in Ottawa's acquisition of Linus Ullmark. He spent the last two seasons backing up Jeremy Swayman in Boston, combining for a 25-19-9 record and an .893 save percentage in 58 appearances.

Nobody in New York is pretending Korpisalo is the answer to everything. His recent numbers are modest, and the Rangers are still a long way from the goalie room they envisioned when the season began, headlined by former Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin, whose season ended early through injury. But a healthy Korpisalo gives the Rangers two legs to stand on in net for the first time in weeks, and that matters with a four-game road trip opening in Seattle on Saturday.

For Garand, the timing could hardly be better. He has done far more than anyone asked of him. Now, at last, he gets some help.