Henrik Lundqvist: King of modern goaltending

Henrik Lundqvist, despite having no Stanley Cups, is easily one of the best goalies in NHL History. 

The pursuit of a championship is the toughest road a professional athlete faces. Often, it’s an unfair one. Why should an individual be judged by team accomplishments? Perhaps no position in the NHL is cursed by this more than goaltenders. Especially elite ones like Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers.

He also has the curse of having the nickname “King Henrik”. Look at LeBron James. He got blasted on a daily basis for having the nickname “King James” before finally leading the Miami Heat to an NBA title. It has always been an appropriate nickname for LeBron, as he is the best player since Michael Jordan. Likewise, King Henrik deserves his because he reigns over his peers.

Lundqvist might only have one Vezina Trophy. However, this shouldn’t be viewed as an indictment of him. Rather, it’s proof general managers (who vote on the award) have a long way to go to properly evaluating goaltenders. One could argue Lundqvist should have won in 2012-13. Sure, Sergei Bobrovsky was excellent that season. However, King Henrik faced far more high danger shots against and did better against high danger shots than the winner.

Not all saves are created equal, and looking at Vezina Trophy voting, voters have yet to grasp this.

Lundqvist Reigns Over His Peers

The curse of an elite goaltender is a very real thing. They have the tendency to mask flaws which would otherwise get noticed. But because an elite goalie makes his team much better, those same flaws often get ignored. Lundqvist suffers from this curse perhaps more than any goalie in recent history. Comparing goalies of different eras is difficult and there’s no surefire way to do so. But compared to his peers, Lundqvist is on his goaltending throne.

Since his debut, 18 goalies (including King Henrik) have at least 400 starts. Lundqvist leads all of them in quality start percentage. A quality start, as defined by Hockey Reference, is a start during which the goalie’s save percentage is greater than the league average while facing at least 20 shots or at least 88.5 percent while facing less than 20 shots. Unlike a quality start in baseball, this requires goalies to be above average.

While goalies like Tuukka Rask, Braden Holtby, and Carey Price each have a better career save percentage than him, none of them have the longevity or consistency of Lundqvist. His goals allowed adjusted, which compares a goalie’s performance to the league average, suggests he’s been above average in each of his 11 seasons. Lundqvist’s 11 above average seasons are tied for 10th all-time. Also, Roberto Luongo and King Henrik are the only two goalies ever to have 11 consecutive above average seasons to start their careers. Not even Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy can lay a claim to this impressive feat.

Goaltenders are fickle and tend to have relatively short life spans in the NHL. They hit a violent wall around the age of 32 and their declines tend to resemble a 90 degree angle. Only the great ones are consistent and only the elite ones remain great past their prime like Lundqvist.

Great ones, like Lundqvist.

Lundqvist As An All-Time Great

With his 400th career win on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche, Henrik Lundqvist joins an elite goaltending fraternity. Only 12 goalies have 400 wins. Lundqvist will most likely be in the top 10 in career wins by the end of the season, as he’s only four wins away from passing Glen Hall. What’s more impressive is he has reached the 400 win plateau at an incredibly quick pace.

No goalie has gotten to 400 career wins in fewer career games than Henrik Lundqvist. Martin Brodeur is the only other goalie to get to 400 wins within his first 12 seasons in the league. It’s an incredible feat when you think about it. To get to 400 wins in your first 12 seasons, you have to average over 33 wins per season. Lundqvist still has two months left in the 2016-17 season and could pass Brodeur’s 403 wins.

To be fair, wins aren’t the best way to determine a goalie’s greatness. Wins are a good way to determine a team’s greatness, but they often say quite little about the goaltender. All it says is the goalie’s team won. It doesn’t say whether the goalie deserved to win. Nor does they mention that a goalie allowed six goals while his team scored seven.

However, with Henrik Lundqvist, it’s a special exception. Entering Feb. 13, 2017, he has appeared in 727 games. In those games, Lundqvist has seen 20,516 shots on goal, an average of just over 28.6 shots per game. By comparison, Brodeur faced just over 25 shots per game. It’s worth noting Marty wasn’t a butterfly goalie. He was the last of a dying breed, a stand up style goalie who rarely went to his pads. It’s a style easier on the body than the butterfly style, which Lundqvist (as well as almost every modern goalie) adopts. The butterfly requires goalies to be agile, explosive, and most of all, flexible.

How does Henrik Lundqvist rank among all-time greats? He’s at least in the top five. In an era with inconsistent goalies, King Henrik stands out by being extremely consistent and great. Even with no Stanley Cups, it’s hard to fault Lundqvist for this. He has a .920 save percentage during the regular season and a .9213 save percentage in the postseason. The onus for Lundqvist not winning a Stanley Cup falls on the Rangers. He nearly got them one, dragging the team to the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals before eventually falling to the Los Angeles Kings.

One could make the argument Henrik Lundqvist is already the greatest Ranger of all-time. It’s admittedly close between Mark Messier, King Henrik, and Brian Leetch. In fact, Lundqvist is already the Rangers’ career leader in point shares.

An underrated part of his game? How clutch he is. Clutch is a word often thrown around and it has lost a lot of its meaning. However, in a deciding game, few have been more lethal than Lundqvist. Just ask the Washington Capitals, who he has tormented throughout his career.  Rarely do you see him lose his cool in an elimination game.

Next: 30 best NHL goaltenders of all time

Ultimately, Lundqvist should be remembered as one of the all-time greats. If he isn’t, it’s further proof hockey has a very long way to go to properly evaluating goaltenders.