Henrik Lundqvist: One of the Rangers' all-time goalie greats finally steps away from the game
New York City, New York - The New York Rangers are saying goodbye to one of the greatest players to wear one of their jerseys.
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (39) is retiring from the NHL after 15 seasons between the pipes for the Rangers.
He took the opportunity to share his decision via his Twitter account on Friday.
Lundqvist joined the Rangers in 2005 and his legend took off from there. He was nominated for the Vezina Trophy in each of his first three seasons before finally winning the award in 2012.
He is still the only goaltender in NHL history to have won 30+ games eleven times, in twelve seasons and has the most wins in history by a European-born goaltender.
Lundqvist also led Team Sweden to a gold medal at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games and the silver at the 2014 Sochi Games.
In 2020, he signed with the Washington Capitals but had to sit out the entire season due to serious issues that required open-heart surgery. He was set to continue playing hockey going into the upcoming season, but persisting concerns made him choose health over hockey.
In speaking to the New York Post, Lundqvist explained: "I was told that inflammation takes a long time to correct and with medication I might be out of the woods, but it could be another full year before I would be 100%. ... I came to the conclusion that there are too many unknowns and too much risk for not enough reward for me to keep playing."
After 15 seasons in the NHL, he retires as the Rangers' franchise leader in save percentage (.918), goals-against average (2.43), and shutouts (64).
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire