In a recent interview, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist admitted he doesn’t know if he’ll spend his whole career with the New York Rangers.
Ever since he made his NHL debut in 2005, Henrik Lundqvist has been as consistent as they come for the New York Rangers. No one has more wins in the NHL than him since the start of the 2005-06 season.
However, in a recent interview, Lundqvist admitted he doesn’t know if he’ll stay with the Rangers for his whole career. He has expressed a desire to be a career-long Ranger multiple times. Currently, Lundqvist has two years left on his deal with an $8.5 million cap hit.
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He has a full no-movement clause, meaning he would have to approve any trade. Though the Rangers have been contenders for most of Lundqvist’s career, they’ve recently started rebuilding. This puts his future with the team in question.
Further complicating things is the Rangers current goalie situation. They’re pretty well off, as they have Lundqvist in the short-term and Alexandar Georgiev and Ilya Shesterkin in the long-term. At least one of the last two is sticking around because the Rangers likely won’t have three goalies on the NHL roster any time soon.
Lundqvist is the franchise leader in wins (457), games played in as a goalie (857), losses (298), save percentage (.918%), and shutouts (63). He has the sixth-most wins among goalies of all-time and is second only to Roberto Luongo among active goaltenders.
His future with the Rangers likely depends on what they decide to do with Georgiev and Shesterkin. Eventually, one will most likely take over Lundqvist’s job as the number one goalie on Broadway full-time. Georgiev received most of the starts down the stretch for the Rangers last season with Henrik’s blessing.
Lundqvist’s future on Broadway also depends on how willing he is to accept his fate as a potential backup. He could follow in the footsteps of Joe Thornton and Zdeno Chara and just sign one-year deals after his current contract is up. This would also allow the Rangers to potentially move him if they need to.
He has yet to express a desire to waive his no-movement clause. However, this is the first time Lundqvist has ever seemed to question whether or not he’ll stick around with the Rangers. Regardless of what happens, he’s the greatest goaltender in franchise history and arguably the most beloved player as well.
It’s hard to see Lundqvist playing anywhere but the Rangers. But remember when people said the same thing about Ray Bourque and the Boston Bruins? Never say never, but it would take something pretty unique to get Lundqvist off the Rangers.