James Reimer’s Rangers career was one period long, and the whole thing looked like a bad idea by the time the horn sounded.
He started against the Kings on October 26, allowed three goals on eight shots, and got the hook after 20 minutes. Dylan Garand came in and stopped 15 of 17 the rest of the way. The Rangers still lost 6-3, but nobody left Madison Square Garden wondering who the better option in net was.
James Reimer has been placed on waivers after playing just ONE PERIOD for the Rangers 😬
He allowed three goals on eight shots in his lone appearance as Joonas Korpisalo nears a return. pic.twitter.com/0sSmlIBlvh
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) November 5, 2026
Then came the paperwork. Reimer went on waivers, and over the weekend Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said the Rangers were terminating his contract, as Pro Hockey Rumors relayed. It’s not a shock. He went unclaimed, he’s 38, and he made exactly one appearance.
The New York Rangers are terminating goaltender James Reimer's contract, per @FriedgeHNIC.
Reimer, 38, allowed 3 goals on 8 shots for a .625 SV% in 20 minutes of action with New York. pic.twitter.com/in8YtEkw5x
— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) November 7, 2026
As for why now, Pro Hockey Rumors says Joonas Korpisalo being activated off injured reserve “spelled the end” of Reimer’s time. Once the guy they intended to open the season with was healthy again, the stopgap had no job left.
So let’s talk about what the stopgap says. Shesterkin’s injury had already left the Rangers short a goalie, and Garand was the answer once Shesterkin went down. Reimer was a later add, a 38-year-old on a one-year deal signed around October 25, reportedly for $850,000. Cheap, sure. But bringing in a veteran right before a game is a prayer more than a plan, and the Kings answered it three times in 20 minutes.
The box score tells you how fast it went wrong: five saves on eight shots, a .625 save percentage, and the whole thing over in 20:00 of ice time. Garand then played the remaining 38:05 and gave up two goals on 17 shots. That is a goalie doing the job the signing was supposed to do.
Pro Hockey Rumors reports Garand has played exclusively since. Yardbarker calls him New York’s de facto starter, and the wording matters, because no official announcement of a depth-chart role has surfaced. It’s observed usage, and it matches what the Rangers did the moment Reimer left the ice: they went with Garand and never looked back. The Rangers have just been playing Garand and letting the depth chart catch up.
That should have been the pitch from the start. Garand in the number one spot with Korpisalo behind him is the goalie plan, whether the front office says it out loud or not. Yardbarker describes Korpisalo as the backup they intended to begin the season with. Reimer was signed after that plan broke, so I read him as a patch, not the plan, and it cost them a bad headline and a spot on the roster.
Now the patch is gone. As Pro Hockey Rumors reports it, the Rangers put Reimer on waivers, nobody claimed him, and his contract was terminated once Korpisalo was back on the active list. The sources don’t agree on the exact order of the paperwork, and it doesn’t change the point. Korpisalo is back where Yardbarker says he was supposed to be, Garand is in net, and the crease finally makes sense. Garand has the net, Korpisalo is the backup the Rangers planned on, and the Reimer experiment is a footnote.
