The New York Rangers are mired in the bottom half of the league with a roster lacking talent. Even at age 36, Henrik Lundqvist could help another team try to win the Stanley Cup.
Watching a once proud organization falter in the bottom half of the NHL is jarring to the senses. For the better part of a decade, the New York Rangers were always in the mix for the Stanley Cup. The main reason being the superb play of Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes.
The Swede is climbing up the list of all-time leaders in most goaltending stats and one of the best to ever play the position in the NHL. Whether or not Lundqvist is a Hall of Famer will come down to the judgment of the hall of fame committee. Meaning that even though he doesn’t have a cluttered trophy case, Lundqvist has a legitimate argument.
This argument is for another day when the final stats are tabulated. As for the interim, it’s clear that the Rangers are a better team with Lundqvist than without. The veteran still made 16 more saves on expected goals, which was good enough for eighth in the entire league. He did so behind the worst possession team in the entire NHL, no simple feat.
At last year’s trade deadline, the Rangers’ front office gave Lundqvist the option of leaving a rebuilding team via trade. Of course, being that the Swede is still between the pipes, he declined the offer. However, what if he grew tired of constant losing and the impact it would have on his all-time standing?
The mentality
Simply put, Lundqvist and the Rangers are synonymous with each other. For the longest time, the plan for the franchise was simply riding the goaltender as hard as possible and hope the team in front of him was not so bad that it would tank the final outcome.
Take the 2011-2012 Ranger team for example. That group had no discernable plan other than win every single game 2-1 or 3-2 and it’s no coincidence that was the single best statistical year of Lundqvist’s career. With a team playing perfect defensive hockey in front of him, it was no surprise that he won the Vezina trophy.
The obvious reason for Lundqvist’s insistence on riding out the storm is his love for the city of New York and the organization. He has frequently cited the importance of playing for only one team in his entire career as a reason to ride out the storm. In addition to his professional aspirations, there are other factors such as his family and the perks of living in New York.
The what if?
So let’s say that Lundqvist changes his mind and agrees to be traded with three years left on his current contract. First of all, it’d be his right to do so. Anyone complaining that he was being selfish didn’t watch the entirety of his career with the Rangers.
The best way to explain Lundqvist’s career with the team is that the rest of the team were children sitting on their parent’s shoulders in the ocean. For the first few years, the team in front of him weren’t a burden and Lundqvist was able to shoulder the load without much of an issue. However as the team in front of him got older, changed and got heavier, he couldn’t hold them up any longer.
There is no other way to put it, the team in front of him isn’t good enough and it’s dragging him down. There’s only so much a goaltender can do when his team is giving up 40 shots per game.
Imagining the universe in which Lundqvist agrees to a trade requires two things. First, the absolutely perfect situation to step in and win right away with a chance at the Stanley Cup. Second, the Rangers get something decent in return to buoy the offsetting loss of the best player on the team.
Without Lundqvist in net, the Rangers would be the worst team in the entire NHL. The forwards don’t score enough and the defense makes too many mistakes. This combination would throw whoever the replacement goaltender was to the wolves.
This universe puts Lundqvist on a similar path to that of Hall of Famer Patrick Roy. Of course, Roy had won the Stanley Cup once before getting traded to the Colorado Avalanche during the twilight of his career.
But, it is just outright painful to watch Lundqvist play behind such a terrible team. I genuinely feel bad that the best player in the history of the franchise is being rendered helpless during his final years in the league.
It’s unlikely that Lundqvist ever has this epiphany, but either way, the Swede deserves better.