Predicting every NHL team’s future Hall of Famers

New York Rangers – Henrik Lundqvist

Henrik Lundqvist is the best goaltender of the salary cap era, bar none. He’ll retire as one of the NHL’s winningest goalies of all-time. Moreover, Lundqvist has a Vezina Trophy on his resume, which is really going to bolster his case. There’s an outside chance he could get to 500 wins if he’s willing to play for a team other than the Rangers.

Lundqvist should probably have more than one Vezina Trophy, as the advanced stats had him as at least a top-five goalie for nearly 10 straight seasons. That’s enough to show he was among the best in the league for a really long time at a position that’s a bunch of voodoo.

At the very least, he’ll retire as arguably the second-best European goalie in NHL history, trailing only Dominik Hasek, who many believe is the best goalie in NHL history. Lundqvist has done enough to get in even before we talk about his international career.

Outside of the NHL, Lundqvist has an Olympic gold medal and an Olympic silver medal. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be a first-ballot Hall of Famer other than he’s a goalie and the Hall of Fame treat them cruelly.

Honorable mentions: Artemi Panarin has been extremely productive and is just entering the best years of his career. But he has no major awards other than the Calder Trophy. A Stanley Cup and a Hart Trophy would probably get him in the conversation.