Rangers goalie prospect Dylan Garand poised to live out lifelong dream

GREENBURGH — Dylan Garand has thought about all of it.

What it would be like to pull the Rangers sweater over his pads for a regular season game. To skate to the Seventh Avenue side of the Madison Square Garden ice surface and plant himself in the same crease that was patrolled by John Davidson and John Vanbiesbrouck. By Mike Richter and Henrik Lundqvist and, now, by Igor Shesterkin.

What it would be like to hear the public address announcer bellow his name as part of the starting lineup.

What it would be like to play in a NHL game.

“It’d be cool,” Garand said following a 50-minute practice Saturday morning at the MSG Training Center. “It’s the most famous arena in the world and to have a Rangers jersey on and play in front of the home fans would be an unreal opportunity and such a cool experience. So yeah, if that comes, great. I’d be excited for it.”

The odds are that Garand, who was called up from AHL Hartford Friday, may get a chance to live out a lifelong dream, as well as prove to  general manager Chris Drury, and coach Mike Sullivan that he can be part of the organization’s future.

Because, during his post-practice availability with reporters, Sullivan said backup netminder Jonathan Quick “is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and depending on how this week plays out, I would anticipate Dylan playing.”

Sullivan made clear, when asked why the time was now for Garand to be called up instead of early January when Shesterkin went down with a lower-body injury, that Garand’s promotion was merit-based.

“There’s a lot of things that have gone into the decision to bring Dylan up, but what I’ll tell you is the biggest point is that he’s played extremely well in Hartford,” Sullivan said. “He’s given those guys a chance to win night in and night out, and he’s deserving.”

A fourth-round pick (No. 103) in the 2020 draft, Garand has compiled a 2.83 goals against average, .896 save percentage, and one shutout in 36 games this season.

Which needs a little context.

After an admittedly disjointed start to the season for both himself and the Wolf Pack, Garand has a .919 save percentage and 2.06 goals against average in the last 11 games he has played.

“Definitely an up-and-down year. Coming into the year we all had high expectations for our team and we got off to a really slow start,” said Garand, in response to a question about both his season and that of Hartford. Individually, he has a 16-15-2 mark while the Wolf Pack have a record of 24-30-6. “We’re just a really close group of guys and we weren’t quite putting it together on the ice. I feel like lately we’ve kind of been getting that off-ice chemistry building on the ice. We’ve been gelling really well and we’ve been playing really good hockey down there.”

As to why the Wolf Pack put together a 16-22-5 record in the first 43 games of the season against an 8-8-1 stretch in their last 17, Garand was admittedly unsure.

“It didn’t make much sense,” the 23-year-old said. “I think our record wasn’t quite showing the way that maybe we were playing. We were losing a lot of games but they were only by one goal, and maybe even leading going into the third period. We just couldn’t find a way to get those results.”

And he now finds himself on a team that is affording its prospects opportunities to compete for jobs at the NHL level.

One of which may be reserve goalie since Quick, the future Hall-of-Famer, is 40-years-old and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He may opt to sign with a team better positioned to compete for a Stanley Cup next season. The Connecticut native has won three Cups in his career (2012 and 2014 with Los Angeles; 2023 with Vegas).

“We all see what’s going on [with the organizational youth movement],” Garand said. “Everybody’s dream is to play in the NHL. So whenever there’s potential opportunity around, it’s exciting for the guys and pushes you to work harder and get better every day.”

Notes & quotes: The Rangers announced that 20-year-old defenseman Drew Fortescue signed a three-year, entry-level contract. He recorded four goals and 10 assists in 36 games with Boston College. According to a league source, Fortescue is going to report to the Rangers instead of being assigned to Hartford . . . Noah Laba (lower-body) and Urho Vaakanainen (upper-body) are week-to-week. When asked if either would need to be placed on injured reserve, Sullivan said, “Right now they’re going to be week-to-week.”