Henrik Lundqvist is one of the best goalies I’ve ever seen. Henrik Lundqvist is one of the best Rangers I’ve ever seen. But trading him might be the right move for the future of this New York Rangers team.
Henrik Lundqvist is 30 years old. He is playing a negotiating game with Sather. He could potentially be moving on from New York.
Hank just had a kid. I’m sure it won’t be the last. We don’t know what goes on in his house and for all we know, his wife could want to move somewhere smaller, somewhere warmer, or somewhere else. The suburbs are nice! But what if Hank just likes a city more?
The point is that theres no guarantee Hank comes back and even if he does, do you really want to sign a 30 year old GOALIE to a 7 year deal? And a goalie that can’t carry a team through a post-season, and a goalie who spent most of his first 5 years or so, playing 70+ games a year. I see us having one, maybe two good chances at a Cup by signing Hank.
There’s 3 teams we could trade him too that could turn our franchise around. St. Louis, Minnesota, and Florida all need goaltending. We could probably get Huberdau, their 1st and Markstrom from Florida by giving up Hank, a future 1st, and a prospect like Fasth or Bourque. That means we’re getting a future stud winger, either MacKinnon or Drouin, and a future good goalie. We could take Tarasenko and a 1st and 2nd from St. Louis for just Lundqvist. We could take Granlund, a 1st, and Jared Spurgeon or Matthew Dumba from Minnesota. All of those trades put us in a position to probably have 3 great chances at a Cup and 2 good chances at a Cup in the next 7-10 years.
I am in no way saying the Rangers HAVE to do this. I’m saying they HAVE to look into it and gauge how feasible this is. It’s been about 7 years with Hank and we haven’t been able to close. Given what we have, I just don’t see it working unless he’s willing to take a lower cap hit and a 5 year deal. I LOVE Hank. But I’m a fan of the Rangers and I think this gives us a better and brighter future.
As always, feel free to disagree. My opinions no better than yours.
officialnophiam-blog reblogged this from nyrangersnation-blog and added:
No, the point was being that Fletcher said Mikael is non-negotiable. Even on trade deadline, he won’t give him up so...
nyrangersnation-blog reblogged this from officialnophiam-blog and added:
For the best goalie in the league who’s only struggles has never having an offense in front of him? Minnesota has a good...