Former New York Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is on the verge of winning a Stanley Cup
The buyout window for Henrik Lundqvist is open and while the New York Rangers haven’t announced anything, all indications are that they will buy him out sometime in the next two weeks. If Henrik Lundqvist is watching the Stanley Cup Finals, he should be wishing for it to happen based on the experiences of Kevin Shattenkirk.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored the overtime winner for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals, giving the Lighting a 3-1 lead and a stranglehold on the series. Only one team has come back from that kind of deficit in the Finals to win the Cup. That team was the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs who came back after trailing 0-3 to the Detroit Red Wings.
If Shattenkirk can win the Cup with Tampa, both the Lightning and Shattenkirk will owe the Rangers a debt of gratitude. The Blueshirts bought out Shattenkirk’s contract last summer, enabling him to sign a one year deal with the Lightning for the bargain basement price of $1.75 million. He is still making over $1.4 million from the New York Rangers each year for four years.
Ironically, the Shattenkirk buyout that is one of the reasons the Blueshirts have to buy out Lundqvist. Buying out the defenseman is costing the team over $6 million in dead cap space next season.
Shattenkirk’s is the exact same situation Henrik Lundqvist will be in if he is bought out. In a buyout, Lundqvist will make $2.5 million from the Rangers in 2020-21 and $1.5 million in 2021-22. If Lundqvist’s goal is to win a Cup, he can sign with a contender for a similar bargain salary on a one year deal.
It would mean that Lundqvist would be joining a crowded field of free agent goalkeepers, including Robin Lehner, Anton Khudobin, Jacob Markstrom, Braden Holtby, Corey Crawford, Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard, Thomas Greiss, Cam Talbot, Mike Condon, Mike Smith and Brian Elliott.
However, he wouldn’t be vying for a number one starting job, he would be content to be a back up. Could he follow Shattenkirk to Tampa to back up Andrei Vasilevskiy or replace Khudobin in Dallas? If Vancouver is willing to go with Thatcher Demko and allow Markstrom to walk, would they be interested in a veteran like Lundqvist to mentor their young goalie? For a salary in the vicinity of $1.5 million, there should be a lot of interested teams.
It’s apparent that Lundqvist believes he can still play. He has accomplished everything he has wanted to in the NHL, except win a Stanley Cup. If that is the last mountain he needs to climb, it shouldn’t matter what uniform he is wearing when he does it. A buyout can make that dream a reality, just ask Kevin Shattenkirk.