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Henrik Lundqvist: could this be the end in New York? K'Andre Miller
April 4, 2020, 8:54 PM ET [4 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Larry Brooks is providing player evaluations daily in the NY Post, an exercise that began the past Monday. The order is by last name, and while he is not giving a grade, he is giving a sort of high-level assessment. Since it's my hope that we will have hockey, I thought it might be interesting to take one or a few aspects of his daily column along with his closure  - the latter in italics - and provide my view, then receive yours in the comments. I will try and do this daily, and have covered Lias Andersson, Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Tony DeAngelo, Jesper Fast, Adam Fox,  Alexandar Georgiev, Brett Howden, Kaapo Kakko and Chris Kreider, Brendan Lemieux and Ryan Lindgren. Today, it's Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist






The last two months of the season must have been exactly what Henrik Lundqvist envisioned at the 2018 post-Letter deadline purge when he chose to remain with the Rangers after he was given the chance to opt out of an embryonic rebuild program and pursue his Stanley Cup dream somewhere else.

Because here were the Blueshirts, powered to a great extent by kids and big-money free agent and trade acquisitions, storming into the playoff race by going 16-6 under just the type of accelerated rebuild program that the King foresaw two years earlier when he pledged his heart to New York.

Which made it even more cruel that Lundqvist was more apart from it than a part of it. As much The Franchise as Tom Seaver ever was in Queens, the goaltender essentially was airbrushed out of the team picture and watched as the pair of 24-year-olds, Igor Shesterkin and Alex Georgiev, took his job and ran with it.

When the NHL season came to a sudden halt following the March 11 match in Colorado, Lundqvist had started one of the Rangers’ last 19 games, and he got that one because Shesterkin was injured and Georgiev needed a break. And other than allowing for the possibility of a final ceremonial and sentimental last go-round at the Garden if the Blueshirts had fallen out of the race, there was not going to be another one.

Who could have thought that it would end like this, with the greatest goaltender in franchise history essentially an afterthought and invisible man?

Understand that everything is measured within context, but if I tell you how uncomfortably awkward it was to be around Lundqvist in the locker room after practices, try to imagine how it must have been for him every time he stepped into the rink and was reminded that he had become obsolete in the blink of an eye.

Was it disrespectful? I don’t know. I do know that the executives and coaches involved in the decision believe they have been respectful in their communications with Lundqvist, and who am I to say that is untrue? Only the principals know the content of their conversations and none has revealed their nature. It may be a leap here, and I do not want to ascribe thoughts to Lundqvist that might not be his, but he sure didn’t appear overly respected over the last month or so of NHL activity.

Henrik Lundqvist is not just a star-type player. He is a pending first-ballot Hall of Famer who has had one of the great careers in the history of New York pro sports.

That’s all. He chose to stay when given an escape route. That was not selfishness. That was loyalty.

If this has been excruciating for Lundqvist, who is spending this coronavirus-induced break with his family home in Sweden, I am certain it has been extremely difficult for Davidson, now the president; for Jeff Gorton, the GM; for David Quinn, the coach who had to be the one to put decisions into effect; and for goaltending coach Benoit Allaire, the King’s great organizational mentor. No Rangers staff has been confronted with an issue quite like this one.

The Rangers made their call and have thrived living with it, no matter how personally distasteful it might have been to each individual. They could have aggressively shopped Georgiev to set up a two-man rotation with Shesterkin and a 38-year-old Lundqvist for this year and next, but did not.

Lundqvist was not having a bad season. It was OK through his 22 starts that preceded Shesterkin. The thing is, though, despite turning in a number of vintage performances, there were also too many bad ones. The King had 12 starts in which he recorded a save percentage of .920 or better, but had the same number of starts in which his save percentage was under .890, seven of them at .875 or worse. That is unsustainable.

There were just too many marginal goals that often offset the importance of spectacular saves. Lundqvist not only was getting beaten more often in games, he was getting beaten more often at practices. And the Rangers seemed more unsettled in front of him than in front of either of the younger netminders.

Some of that surely can be traced to the kids’ superiority in handling the puck. But I wonder if part of the phenomenon wasn’t also a reflection of the gap between most of the Rangers, young and just getting their feet wet in the NHL, and Lundqvist, a generational player. Most were in grade school when Lundqvist first made his mark in New York.

But this, before he goes:

Can we take a trip to a place where dreams are born (or achieved) and time is never planned? Can we take a trip to Neverland, where the 2019-20 playoffs will be held, and Lundqvist, having reported to a post-pause training camp as the Rangers’ sharpest netminder, gets the call from Quinn and takes advantage of that one last chance and goes out with the glory of taking his team to the Stanley Cup?

Can we?

Scott Burnside looked at 12 story lines for the off-season, Lundqvist is one of them:.



4. What of Henrik Lundqvist?

The pause in the NHL’s season also pauses one of the most difficult decisions for the New York Rangers: What to do with one of the greatest players in franchise history in netminder Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist went from the third wheel in an uncomfortable three-goalie rotation to a spare tire this season. His last win was on Feb. 1. He started just one of the Rangers’ last 19 games, appearing in relief in two other games. Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev both displayed the skills that speak to franchise netminding and were among the main reasons the Rangers are ahead of their evolutionary curve. In short, the play of the two young netminders meant there was simply no room for Lundqvist on this emerging team. Georgiev is a restricted free agent and there was talk he could be moved at the trade deadline but that didn’t happen. Could it happen before the 2020 draft? Not unless there is a premium return coming back, although there are teams looking for goaltending stability like San Jose, Detroit, Buffalo and Edmonton.  Lundqvist, whose name also surfaced, at least peripherally at the deadline, has one more year left on his current deal at $8.5 million with full trade protection. Certainly no one wants a repeat of what transpired this season. The Rangers could buy Lundqvist out of the final year of his deal or maybe there’s a trade to be made with Lundqvist’s blessing plus the Rangers eating a chunk of his salary. The buyout is much more likely than a trade given the moving parts. But then what? Lundqvist is 38. His line this year: 10-12-3, 3.16 goals-against average and .905 save percentage. In a perfect world, the Rangers are part of an expanded playoff grid and Lundqvist gets a chance to prove he’s not done at the NHL level even if the sands have run out on his time in New York. But those are long odds. Could a team like Colorado use Lundqvist on a one-year deal? Buffalo? San Jose? Great story for the romantic in all of us but not a narrative that appears to be based in reality.


Lundqvist is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He was and likely still is the Face of the Franchise, When determining the Mount Rushmore of the team, he is quite likely one of the four, unless you have Mike Richter there for the Cup win.

The rapid drop-off in play should have been somewhat expected despite fine performances along the route. His advanced metrics still show a goalie that is saving more high-danger shots than expected and lower expected goals-against average as compared to what should occur based on the metrics. But, those numbers are still fantasy to an extent, despite the defense playing better in front if Igor and Georgiev, with the reality the bottom-line stats to a certain extent,

Georgiev could and might have been trade bait. But the organization decided to, in my opinion, rightfully hold on to him. You could have all three goalies back next season, especially if the cap rose as originally expected. But the lack of revenue and unlikelihood of massive use of the escrow could mean a cap similar to this season with major a slight rise. If that does happen, then keeping all three will be fiscally irresponsible.

As I wrote last week, a compliance buyout might be part of what the league enacts for next season. If that occurs, as cold-blooded as it may be and in line with what Brooks has written, buying out Lundqvist makes too much sense. An $8.5 million savings is too hard to pass up, especially if at least or almost 10% of your cap. Shesterkin is the future #1 with Georgiev pushing up and receiving copious amounts of ice time. Lundqvist could decide to play elsewhere, though seeing him in another jersey other than the red, white and blue of New York or maybe yellow and blue or Tre Kroner will be disconcerting.

If it does come to this, I will choose to remember the good moments. Especially the arms raised after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014 when he shut out the Canadiens 1-0. To me, that's the last image of Henrik Lundqvist as a New York Ranger.



K'Andre Miller. I didn't see the news about Miller getting Zoombombed with the most vile, racist comments until right before the Sabbath. Read the Rangers and NHL responses in the paper, here is a link to the column (https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/rangers-kandre-miller-chat-zoombombed-by-racist-trolls/) this morning.

First, to say that there is no place for this is a given. But as we have seen, hiding behind the anonymity of the web - though hopefully they find out who did this and charge him to the maximum extent allowable - allows individuals who would never say a word to your face to be tough guys in public. If he is found, and per John Shannon the FBI is investigating because it it a hate crime, shame him or her publicly, make him realize just.how vile what he did is. Second, the Rangers response was tepid at best with the NHL coming down a lot harder than our team. Plus, the length of time following the incident was unacceptable, as a statement condemning what occurred, should have come out much much earlier. Last, Miller showed amazing class during and after the incident, receiving the rightful backing from his future Rangers teammates and several around the league. Maybe this can be turned into a teaching moment with a positive end result to a horrific deed.







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