New York Rangers: Where does Lundqvist rank among NHL goalies?
During the summer, the NHL network has conducted a series of fan polls to get opinion on the top 20 players at each position. As the network conducts its poll for the goaltender position, it naturally asks the question: Where does the New York Rangers 35 year old Henrik Lundqvist rank ?
The slow burn that is the NHL offseason can often leave those who follow the league feeling starved come late August. Especially in the case of those who follow teams like the New York Rangers that did not make the playoffs considering the team has not played since the first week of April. That is a long way in the domain of sports.
The natural inclination during this time of the calendar is debate. Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby? Carey Price or Henrik Lundqvist? While the legitimacy of some debate is up for discussion (see Jake Virtanen finishing in the top 20 of wingers,) there is something to be said for the nature of possessional rankings.
According to oddshark.com, Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury is the favorite to win the Vezina trophy for the upcoming NHL season. Following the Golden Knights goaltender are Sergei Bobrovsky, Tukka Rask and Carey Price. In relation to these four candidates for the Vezina, there is a serious argument that Lundqvist is just as good skill wise as any of them.
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Being that preseason rankings are purely subjective, there is an air of bias towards the track record. If a player has never distinguished themselves statistically, they likely won’t be in the discussion to be considered better than Lundqvist.
Not a chance
Sometimes a less than ideal situation at a specific situation arises. The New York Rangers and their defense should be more than familiar with the affliction. To point out the obvious, there are simply not enough quality starting goaltenders to go around for all 31 NHL franchises. Specifically, there are a handful of teams that are dependent on below average players at the position.
The blatantly obvious point is that the worse a team is, the more likely their goaltender is to struggle. If a goaltender is facing upwards of 40 shots per night, no matter how good the net minder is, the challenge will be insurmountable. Being that these are subjective rankings, Lundqvist can avoid this group based on his skill level.
The goaltenders in this group: Cam Ward, Mike Smith, Jimmy Howard, Michael Neuvirth, Thomas Greiss, Corey Schneider, and Craig Smith are amongst the fringe players at the position. These are players that if their respective backups get hot, could snatch the starting job away from them without a second thought.
With a quality defense in front of them, goaltenders in this class could serve as a passable starter for a share to the games during the course of a season. However, over an 82 game season, with a suspect team in front of them, they will struggle.
Middle of the pack
There is not necessarily a direct correlation between quality of a goalie and the success of a team, but a good goalie never hurt a team. When it comes to the middle of the pack, average goaltenders often play in between the pipes for an average NHL team. On any given night players in this tier can manage to steal a game, or they can roll out a dud and make their team dead on arrival.
Goaltenders like Ben Bishop of the Dallas Stars, Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers, Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks, Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Frederick Andersen of the Toronto Maple Leafs rank in this tier. These are the type of goaltenders that a good team can shield enough throughout the course of a season and finish with quality results. Any of these goaltenders should conceivably be able to backstop a goaltender to a Stanley Cup with the right group in front of them.
But, should the team in front of them wilt, their production will take a dip. Take the former Ranger in Talbot for example. As the Oilers took a step back as a team, their goaltender took a dip in production. The Oilers finished as a candidate for the lottery come the end of the season and the goaltender had his save percentage dip 11 points and his goals against average balloon by more than .70.
The pretenders
There is a very rare air of goaltenders that are able to snake by with above average stats on quality teams. To outright say these goalies are benefits of their systems may be an insult to the biggest system goalie of all time, Martin Brodeur, but nonetheless, the point remains. On a good team that has the ability to dictate the flow and pace of the game, a mediocre goaltender can get by.
Take the postseasons of Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings and Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators. During the course of the regular season, both had the statistics of an elite goaltender. Rinne won the Vezina trophy as the league’s best goaltender while Quick won the Jennings trophy for being the goalie that allowed the fewest goals. Under a closer examination there are tell tale signs that neither deserves a spot within the top ten.
Take both goalies performance in the postseason as the true measure of skill. The expansion Golden Knights swept Quick in the first round and later on beat Rinne and his Predators. While Quick didn’t last long enough in a series to be pulled for his backup, Rinne was pulled for Juuse Saros multiple times during the course of a seven game series.
The cream of the crop
Simply put, when a team has a goaltender in this tier, they have the ability to win on any given night. While goaltender may be the biggest market inefficiency across the entire league in terms of salary relative to production, there is something to be said for a net minder that can stand on their head for 60 minutes per night and give their team a chance to win on a nightly basis.
These are the types of players that will get Vezina trophy votes and on a bad team should garner Hart Memorial Trophy votes. Goaltenders like Tukka Rask, Sergei Bobrovski, Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Braden Holtby, Carey Price and Lundqvist are the best at the position. While some of these players have been subjugated to poor play in front of them, they have managed to hang on.
The biggest testament to the skill of someone like Lundqvist was the Ranger’s Western Canada trip this past season. While the Rangers were well out of the playoff race, the goaltender made 50 saves in consecutive games to drive the team to victory. The sheer will to compete of Lundqvist will be the reason that New York cannot bottom out as a serious lottery team.
Rankings
*These preseason goaltender rankings are based on the respective player’s track record in the NHL and should not be taken as fact*
- Sergei Bobrovski, Columbus Blue Jackets
- Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
- Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
- Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
- Roberto Luongo, Florida Panthers
- Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas Golden Knights
- Tukka Rask, Boston Bruins
- John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks
- Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche
- Frederick Andersen, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks (if he plays this season)
- Martin Jones, San Jose Sharks
- Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
- Antti Raanta, Arizona Coyotes
- Matt Murray, Pittsburgh Penguins
- Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings
- Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild
- Ben Bishop, Dallas Stars
- Cam Talbot, Edmonton Oilers
- Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings
- Corey Schneider, New Jersey Devils
- Phillipp Grubauer, Colorado Avalanche
- Jake Allen, St.Louis Blues
- Craig Anderson, Ottawa Senators
- Jacob Markstrom, Vancouver Canucks
- Carter Hutton, Buffalo Sabres
- Scott Darling/Petr Mrazek, Carolina Hurricanes
- Mike Smith, Calgary Flames
- Thomas Greiss, New York Islanders
Next. How the Rangers prospect pool has improved. dark
Preseason power rankings serve one purpose, staving off the boredom of the offseason. Soon enough the argument over whether Cody McLeod or Vinni Lettieri should be starting a mid November game against the Carolina Hurricanes will save us from the boredom.