The right way to buy out a legend
By Steve Paulus
How did the New York Rangers handle the buyout of Henrik Lundqvist?
There’s no question about it, buyouts are ugly. It’s even uglier when it involves a player who has been the heart and soul of a team for 15 years. That’s the case with Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers. It’s a nasty reminder that professional hockey is a business and it can be accompanied by rancor and bitterness. Thankfully, as ugly as buyouts can be, the Rangers and Lundqvist handled this one pretty well. It’s a long story that began a year ago.
The season starts
The 2019-2020 began with Rangers coach David Quinn committed to splitting goaltending duties between Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev. He said he learned his lesson, relying too heavily on the Swede early on in the previous season. He was true to his word with Lundqvist starting six games and Georgiev four in a light October schedule.
Lundqvist’s early record wasn’t great as he won only two of those six games with a 3.59 Goals Against Average (GAA) and a .906 Save Percentage (Sv%). Considering the bizarre schedule that saw the Rangers off for six and four straight days, the goalie, who thrives on a regular workload, had a ready excuse.
November the schedule got much busier and Lundqvist was the clear number one, starting nine games to Georgiev’s six. Lundqvist started three games in a row three times and relieved his younger teammate in one game.
His play was solid as he finished with a 5-2-2 record with a .916 Sv% and a 2.91 GAA. Those were solid numbers considering the defensively challenged Rangers’ blueline.
In December it began to turn with Georgiev starting eight games while Lundqvist started six. He finished the month with a 2-3-1 record, a .908 SV% and a 2.81 GAA.
Lundqvist concluded the first half of the season with a 9-8-3 record, a .911 Sv% and a 3.05 GAA. Those were numbers comparable to his 2018-19 season and nowhere near his best.
By the end of the year neither Lundqvist nor Georgiev had clearly established themselves as the top goalie with Lundqvist stealing wins against Carolina and Georgiev notching shutouts on the road in New Jersey and Vegas. The lack of a clear number one set the stage for the biggest reason the buyout became a reality.