Henrik Lundqvist

Henrik Lundqvist was born on March 2, 1982, in Åre, Sweden, and was selected by the New York Rangers in the seventh round of the 2000 NHL Draft, 205th overall. He went on to play 887 NHL games entirely with the Rangers, finishing with 459 wins, 310 losses, 96 overtime losses, a 2.43 goals-against average, a .918 save percentage, and 64 shutouts. He retired in 2021 after heart surgery prevented him from playing the previous season, ending a 15-year run in New York during which he became the face of the franchise.

Lundqvist announced his retirement having placed sixth on the NHL's all-time wins list at 459, seventh in career saves with 23,509, and fourth in career save percentage among goalies who played at least 500 games. He was the only goalie in NHL history to begin his career with seven consecutive 30-win seasons — a streak that ended with 24 wins in 43 starts during the lockout-shortened 2013 season — before posting at least 30 wins in each of the following four seasons. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2012, a gold medal at the 2006 Turin Olympics, a silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, a gold at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, silver medals at the 2003 and 2004 World Championships, and a bronze at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey Long Live The King.

The style Lundqvist developed in New York was distinctly different from how he played in Sweden. As a rookie, he told InGoal he had been "very aggressive, which you need to be in Sweden." The transformation began when he joined the Rangers and came under the direction of goaltending coach Benoit Allaire Long Live The King. Allaire recalled that within the first month, Lundqvist absorbed and applied his teachings with a speed he associated only with goalies at the very top of the game Long Live The King. The approach involved playing unusually deep in the crease for a 6-foot-1 goaltender, staying well back so lateral distance to cover was reduced, and relying on patience on his skates rather than always dropping to both knees No One Could Play like Henrik.

Cam Talbot, who worked alongside Lundqvist and Allaire early in his career, told InGoal: "There's things that I believe won't be done again. The biggest thing is the depth that he felt comfortable at his size. He was so quick laterally and his read of the release was so good he could play deep enough that always allowed him at least a chance at making the second save. Most goalies his size continue to play somewhere around the top of crease if not further out depending on the situation. I don't think Hank ever stepped outside the top of his crease unless it was a breakaway!" No One Could Play like Henrik

Stephen Valiquette, who played with Lundqvist from 2006 to 2010, described the courage the approach required: "He played deep. He'd be on the goal line just reacting to shots from 20 feet that no one else had the courage to play from there." Valiquette also noted that the depth meant nearly every goal appeared to be stoppable: "Every goal looked like it was on him because he always got there. He was never so far out of position that it looked like he never had a chance. That takes courage." No One Could Play like Henrik

Kevin Weekes, who played two seasons with Lundqvist, told InGoal: "He didn't just play the position, he innovated it. I don't think we'll see many like him that are able to impact the position in a unique way in terms of their style of play, their style of gear, the functionality of their gear, and the innovation that he brings to the table in all of those ways. It's so rare." No One Could Play like Henrik

InGoal Magazine has covered Henrik Lundqvist in one podcast appearance and six InGoal articles. That coverage includes a three-part tribute series published at the time of his retirement. Part one examined his work ethic and practice habits Long Live The King, part two looked at his influence on Swedish goaltending Long Live The King, and part three addressed his impact on goalie equipment Long Live The King Part 3.

Those who played with Lundqvist consistently returned to the subject of his preparation. Martin Biron, who played parts of four seasons alongside him, told InGoal: "People that look at Hank say, everything comes easy to him and he's always been great at everything. But he works harder than anybody else I played with and I really mean that. And I played with some really hard working players and goaltenders. Ryan Miller was extremely hard working, [Dominik] Hasek was extremely hard working but I think Hank was the hardest working player I got a chance to play with. Everything he's gotten has been earned, not given." Alex Auld, whose NHL career included time with Ed Belfour, Tim Thomas and Carey Price, called Lundqvist "the most focused and dialed in guy I played with," adding that he "absolutely owned his preparation like no one else I've ever seen" Long Live The King.

On equipment, Lundqvist's influence carried beyond his playing career in a concrete and lasting way. He stopped running his boot strap under his skates at the start of the 2008-09 season, preferring his pads to sit higher on the skate. Three years later, on October 20, 2011, with help from Rangers equipment manager Acacio "Cass" Marques, he added a small tab on the heel of the skate as an alternative anchor for the strap — what became known as the Lundqvist Loop. The loop debuted against the Calgary Flames on that date, after Lundqvist had started a western Canada road trip against the Vancouver Canucks two nights earlier without it Long Live The King Part 3. The Lundqvist Loop subsequently became a fixture on goalie skates across every major manufacturer.

Equipment adjustments extended well beyond the skate. Biron recalled that Lundqvist had been trimming and shaving his Graf cowlings before switching to Bauer skates in 2011, reducing weight and improving his edge before such modifications were standard Long Live The King Part 3. Lundqvist also had his skates sharpened inside-edge high — a configuration Biron described as something he had never encountered before — which, alongside his wider and lower initial stance, contributed to the patience that defined his positioning Long Live The King Part 3. He also played an active role as an equipment tester for Bauer's OD1N project beginning in 2012, working with impact-absorbing foams to explore active rebounds. Bauer's Henry Breslin recalled that Lundqvist's input — expressing that he loved when rebounds flew off his pads — helped shape the direction of that project Long Live The King Part 3.

Lundqvist also used a unique squared-off grip on his stick handle and walked InGoal through the mechanics of it outside the Rangers' stick room. InGoal explored that grip further with Vancouver-based goalie coach Sean Murray and two of his students Lundqvist explains how and why of custom stick grip.

Lundqvist's reach extended clearly into the next generation of Swedish goaltenders. Thomas Magnusson, who has served as director of goaltending in Sweden since 2005, told InGoal that Lundqvist "has meant the world" to the position in his home country, adding: "Henrik's impact on Swedish goaltending in general is huge. I believe the biggest effect has been the inspiration for young boys and girls to try the position." The statistical marker is notable: only eight Swedish goalies played in the first 87 years of the NHL, but 25 others appeared in at least one game after Lundqvist debuted in 2005-06 Long Live The King.

Linus Ullmark was nine years old when Lundqvist won the first of his two Swedish Hockey League championships. He was 12 when Lundqvist came to the NHL and backstopped Sweden to gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Ullmark had a picture of Lundqvist on his computer and told InGoal: "It's hard to put into words of how important he has been the last 15 years for the Swedish goalie community." He added simply: "I idolized him." Long Live The King

Eddie Lack, who played 143 NHL games over six seasons and shared the ice with Lundqvist at the 2017 World Championships, described watching him prepare for games as "amazing," and reflected on a quality he found distinctly un-Swedish: "Swedes are laid back, like 'I'm going to do my best if I win or not' and he was more like 'I am going to win. Whatever it takes, I will win.' That's a very un-Swedish mentality but that's what was so much fun to watch." Long Live The King

In the final full season before his retirement, Lundqvist's place on the Rangers depth chart shifted with the arrival of Igor Shesterkin in January 2020. An InGoal analysis using data from Clear Sight Analytics — the company founded by former Rangers goaltender Steve Valiquette — found that through January 1 of that season, Lundqvist ranked fourth in the NHL in Save Percentage Differential among goalies facing at least 400 chances, performing 1.49 percent better than a league-average goalie would have been expected to against the shots he faced. He also played in the fourth most difficult shot environment in the league in the second half, with an expected save percentage of 88.31 The King Yet Lives: Using Better Numbers to Evaluate Henrik Lundqvist. The analysis concluded that his season-long performance still ranked him among the better goalies in the league despite the circumstances of a three-goalie rotation The King Yet Lives: Using Better Numbers to Evaluate Henrik Lundqvist.

His No. 30 was retired by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2022 No One Could Play like Henrik. He appeared on InGoal Radio in March of that year InGoal Radio Episode 161 with Henrik Lundqvist.