Certainly Worth a King’s Ransom

This off-season the Rangers signed two big-time free agents in Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to shore up their center position, which was exposed as a weakness during last years playoffs. However, things have not worked out for the blueshirts so far, as their offense ranks among the lowest in the NHL. They would be dead in the water, if not for the nightly, spectactular play of third-year goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

With a line-up that produced Jagr-30g, Shanahan-29g, Drury-37g, Gomez-47a, Prucha-22g, Straka-29g and Avery-18g last year, the Rangers worried that their defense wouldn't be able to keep up with this powerful lineup. But in fact, it is the steady play of the defense and specifically Lundqvist, who have enabled the Rangers to be 4-1 in their last 5 games to reach the mediocre .500 mark. The defense is playing well, allowing only 1.77 goals a game, but Lundqvist's play is making up for any defensive miscues and shortcomings.

After last year's All-Star break, Lundqvist had among the best GAA and save percentages in the league and was almost single-handledly responsible for the Rangers surge to making the playoffs. Picking-up where he left-off last year, Lundqvist is 4th in the NHL in GAA (1.61), 5th in Save % (.939), 2nd in Shutouts (3) and tied for 5th in wins (6). In the Rangers last 8 games, Lundqvist's only allowed 6 goals.

The one-thing King Henrik has done, is stabilize a rotissierre position that has plagued the Rangers since 1997. For the 7-year period the Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs, they were criticized for spending on “high-priced, fat-cat free-agents,” which was absolutely true. But that is NOT why they failed to make the playoffs all those years. Anyone who closely follows the Rangers, will tell you it was because of their goalie situation. After 1997, Mike Richter was on the decline as he had, in succession, reconstructive surgery on one knee, reconstuctive surgery on the other knee, and two severe concussions that would eventually end his career. Because he was such a popular figure with the franchise and won a Stanley Cup a few years earlier, they never looked to replace him, only plug-in guys till he came back. THAT was the Rangers biggest mistake, because his fill-ins in those 7 years were: Dan Cloutier, Kirk McLean, Guy Hebert, Jamie McLennan, Dan Blackburn, Jussi Markkanen, Jason Labarbera and Mike Dunham. Not exactly top-flight replacements. If Richter had not retired because of the concussions, he might have played into his late 30's -early 40's, like Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph, Dominic Hasek, etc...and Lundqvist might not have gotten his chance in 2005.

This past off-season, Lundqvist gave the Rangers a hometown discount and signed a 1-year, $4.25 million deal, so they could manuever under the NHL salary cap. But as of Jan. 1, he will be able to negotiate a new contract with the team, and as his record for the past 2 years indicate, he will be able to ask for a king's ransom. After reviewing the list of goalies over the past 7 years, the Rangers would be wise to lock him up long-term to make sure they never go through another 7-year playoff drought again. Lundqvist, like Leetch and Richter before him, is a talented homegrown player who wants to stay a Ranger and thanks to his excellent play the last few years, is going to be a very rich man soon.


As Mel Brooks said in his movie, The History of the World, Part 1, "It's good to be the KIng."