Why shouldn't WSH sign Lundqvist?

[Chimpradamus]

I will keep it short. 1) Lundqvist still has some game left in him, physically he's still in very good shape. These are his top 10 saves from the previous two seasons:
17/18 season:


18/19 season:


So, he couldn't keep together a total kindergarden at his age in New York. NYR is rebuilding and aren't buying him out because he's a bad goalie.

He's normally used to being bombarded with quality shots all the time, like Washington fans have seen your teams do all the time against him, but at his age he can't play behind a circus anymore (even if he did lead the league in xGAA by far, while NYR was dead last in defense, bleeding quality chances).

He doesn't have his reflexes left, but he plays the netminding at a really interesting style. He looks alot more like Hasek used to do. He instantly throws his stick if he think it will accelerate a save. He challenges more and doesn't play as deep. He has gone back to his "young" style before goaltending coach Allaire created his system.

I think it would be a no brainer for WSH to bring in Lundqvist to a 1 year contract at whatever bucks and make Lundqvist join Ovechkin and the others for another cup run. It's close to New York, so his family can still live there if they want to.

Here's a pretty good summary of Lundqvist's career:

Do it! Do it!

Click to read more...

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

To answer your question: they shouldn't sign him if they have the belief that Vanecek at 24 will be a good 1B with potential starter ceiling. They don't want to lose a young prospect that has developed so well to waivers or trade him for scraps after training camp.

 

[Lobodomy]

Hard pass.

 

[Carlzner]

They should. Hopefully he takes one for the team and accepts a super cheap deal to chase the cup

 

[tenken00]

Hank, is that you?

 

[Hivemind]

They shouldn't because, presuming a season with any decent amount of games, they need a reliable 1B who can step in whenever Samsonov is struggling, fatigued, or injured. And Lundqvist isn't that player anymore. He had the lowest total sv%, lowest ES sv%, highest GAA, and worst GSAA of the three goalies that the Rangers used last year (and none of those were even close to the numbers Shesterkin put up). And this was the second straight year he was outplayed by Georgiev and third straight year with a GAA of 2.98 or higher. Lundqvist simply isn't the goalie he used to be, and isn't someone the Capitals could trust to be a regular starter should Samsonov falter. If they were to sign him, they'd likely end up in the same 3-headed-monster situation the Rangers found themselves in this year.


Plus there are simply so many better options out there. Even ignoring Lehner and Khudobin (who've likely priced themselves out of Washington's range), there's Greiss, Markstrom, Talbot, and Crawford on the UFA market. I'm not even convinced Lundqvist would be better than Craig Anderson. Anderson's stats aren't great, but at least they're competitive compared to the other goalies Ottawa has used (while Henrik's get blown away by Shetserkin).

 

[francaisvolantsparis]

why not if it is for 2x$1.5M

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

After the failed Kovy experiment i’ll pass on the washed up legend and go with our young guys

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

After the failed Kovy experiment i’ll pass on the washed up legend and go with our young guys

we just picked the wrong “legend”.....

 

[um]

Other available goalies had better numbers last year

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

we just picked the wrong “legend”.....

Or maybe the wrong coach.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Or maybe the wrong coach.

that legend has been over for a while...

 

[Chimpradamus]

Other available goalies had better numbers last year

Sure, but those teams didn't play behind the clown show that was the Rangers defense the first half of the season, which very much resembled its old self in the playoff qualifier vs Carolina. Really bad structure.

 

[trick9]

Because he isn't very good anymore.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Because he's over the hill (38) and not good anymore.

 

[Midnight Judges]

I will keep it short. 1) Lundqvist still has some game left in him...

No he doesn't.

 

[Chimpradamus]

No he doesn't.

After the first quarter of this season, Lundqvist topped the league in xGAA (saved goals against) of all goaltenders in the NHL. He also had really good numbers in traditional form. Meanwhile, the NYR defense was ranked last in the entire NHL by a wide margin. Yes, even goalies in Detroit had it better than Lundqvist. On what basis do you claim he can't be a solid goaltender anymore? That he doesn't fit into the NYR rebuilding plan?

Are you simply following the media narrative or do you have anything to add to that statement?

I'm confident he could be a solid goalie for WSH, since WSH doesn't have a kindergarden defense. With any sort of stability, Lundqvist would do his part, because he's not expected to win games single handedly.

 

[Melkor]

One thing some don't understand is he's not any good anymore. He's just not. It's like Detroit signing Modano back in the day or Iginla and Colorado. You can't bring a dead body back to life. It's just not how it works. And Rangers could have easily just benched him in the press box for a year and clear their cap space by just letting him walk. But they bought him out which to me indicates that they told him hey we don't have a spot for you anymore, you're not gonna play period. Are you okay with that? He said no and demanded out. And they obliged. So what role do you expect him to take here? 20-30 games for 1,5 a year? He really wanted out that bad for this role? Sorry but not a chance. And the Caps at this point are far from being legit contenders. More like aging pretenders. To be contenders they have quite a few holes both on defense and offense to fill. So I really don't see why would he sign here and why they would want him here.

 

[Midnight Judges]

After the first quarter of this season, Lundqvist topped the league in xGAA (saved goals against) of all goaltenders in the NHL. He also had really good numbers in traditional form. Meanwhile, the NYR defense was ranked last in the entire NHL by a wide margin. Yes, even goalies in Detroit had it better than Lundqvist. On what basis do you claim he can't be a solid goaltender anymore? That he doesn't fit into the NYR rebuilding plan?

Are you simply following the media narrative or do you have anything to add to that statement?

I'm confident he could be a solid goalie for WSH, since WSH doesn't have a kindergarden defense. With any sort of stability, Lundqvist would do his part, because he's not expected to win games single handedly.

There is no rational basis for disregarding the first quarter of the season. Those things happened.

Regardless, I am not seeing what you are seeing. Lundqvist only started 11 games (14 appearances) after December 1, and in those 14 games he had a pathetic .893 save percentage and 3.16 GAA. Igor Shesterkin had a .932 save percentage and 2.52 GAA behind that same defense in that same time span in a similar number of games and almost identical TOI.

Of goalies who played a minimum 25 games last season, Lundqvist was 37th in save percentage and 46th in GAA.

The Rangers were second to last in shots against per game so I think you've got a fair point there in terms of Lundqvist not having an easy assignment.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

One thing some don't understand is he's not any good anymore. He's just not. It's like Detroit signing Modano back in the day or Iginla and Colorado. You can't bring a dead body back to life. It's just not how it works. And Rangers could have easily just benched him in the press box for a year and clear their cap space by just letting him walk. But they bought him out which to me indicates that they told him hey we don't have a spot for you anymore, you're not gonna play period. Are you okay with that? He said no and demanded out. And they obliged. So what role do you expect him to take here? 20-30 games for 1,5 a year? He really wanted out that bad for this role? Sorry but not a chance. And the Caps at this point are far from being legit contenders. More like aging pretenders. To be contenders they have quite a few holes both on defense and offense to fill. So I really don't see why would he sign here and why they would want him here.

‘what “role” do you expect him to get exactly? At best he can go find exactly this role for a little stronger contender IMO.

 

[Melkor]

‘what “role” do you expect him to get exactly? At best he can go find exactly this role for a little stronger contender IMO.

He can settle for this role but not for that kinda money. Hank is the guy who is always about his status, authority. If he agrees to be #2 he'd want to be compensated respectably just to please his ego. He'll sign for peanuts only if they give him a 1B role which they shouldn't.

 

[Chimpradamus]

One thing some don't understand is he's not any good anymore. He's just not. It's like Detroit signing Modano back in the day or Iginla and Colorado. You can't bring a dead body back to life. It's just not how it works. And Rangers could have easily just benched him in the press box for a year and clear their cap space by just letting him walk. But they bought him out which to me indicates that they told him hey we don't have a spot for you anymore, you're not gonna play period. Are you okay with that? He said no and demanded out. And they obliged. So what role do you expect him to take here? 20-30 games for 1,5 a year? He really wanted out that bad for this role? Sorry but not a chance. And the Caps at this point are far from being legit contenders. More like aging pretenders. To be contenders they have quite a few holes both on defense and offense to fill. So I really don't see why would he sign here and why they would want him here.

I don't think you understand how bad NYR played in front of Lundqvist and Georgiev until the 2nd part of the season. Then when they played much better, Stestyorkin was brought in and apparently that automatically means Lundqvist is done. Ok.

There is no rational basis for disregarding the first quarter of the season. Those things happened.

Regardless, I am not seeing what you are seeing. Lundqvist only started 11 games after December 1, and in those 11 games he had a pathetic .893 save percentage and 3.16 GAA. Igor Shesterkin had a .932 save percentage and 2.52 GAA behind that same defense in that same time span in a similar number of games and almost identical TOI.

Of goalies who played a minimum 25 games last season, Lundqvist was 37th in save percentage and 46th in GAA.

The Rangers were second to last in shots against per game so I think you've got a fair point there in terms of Lundqvist not having an easy assignment.

So there's no rational basis to disregard the first quarter of this last season. Good. That Lundqvist only started 11 games after December 1st had maybe 95% to do with the open letter NYR management gave out publicly of a heavy rebuild, while giving out quality players for peanuts. McDonaugh and J.T. Miller for free basically, Hayes to Philly, Zuccarello for nothing, etc. Lundqvist isn't part of the rebuilding plan in New York. That's a huge reason of the reason Lundqvist was disregarded for both younger goaltenders.

That Lundqvist played bad games after playing like one game a month wasn't that hard to predict. Lundqvist needs to grow in "the zone" to dominate. He needs enough games to get going. He's always been like that. That Shestyorkin had better numbers is also easy to see considering when he was brought in to take over, NYR played with significantly more structure and better defense to their game. If all that can be contributed to Shestyorkin having better stickhandling than Hank I'm open for, but I doubt it.

If you want to bring in Lundqvist to play 12 games a year, then sure, don't sign him. But if you want him to contribute, no problem.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

He can settle for this role but not for that kinda money. Hank is the guy who is always about his status, authority. If he agrees to be #2 he'd want to be compensated respectably just to please his ego. He'll sign for peanuts only if they give him a 1B role which they shouldn't.

so......you think he’s going to chase a fatter contract than a backup should expect? I don’t think he’s that dumb, or delusional. Nobody is giving him a starters role.

Quibbling over his backup position pay seems extremely short sighted for a player who may have 1 season left.

 

[Melkor]

I don't think you understand how bad NYR played in front of Lundqvist and Georgiev until the 2nd part of the season. Then when they played much better, Stestyorkin was brought in and apparently that automatically means Lundqvist is done. Ok.

I understand and it's irrelevant. Good goalie is a good goalie and good player is a good player. Regardless of a team. Lundqvist is done, I'm sorry.

 

[Chimpradamus]

I understand and it's irrelevant. Good goalie is a good goalie and good player is a good player. Regardless of a team. Lundqvist is done, I'm sorry.

No, it's not irrelevant until you've actually experienced exactly how bad a team can play. You don't think I remember the onslaught when WSH faced NYR in 08/09 or so? The bombardment towards Lundqvist was ridiculous. He was the team and he had no chance to save that. But according to your logic, he was done then, because he lost against WSH?

If you call the quality of a team in front of a goaltender irrelevant, I don't think you understand the difference playing goalie in NYR compared to Boston or the NYI. It's night and day. But that's irrelevant. Ok. I guess hockey actually IS tennis. It doesn't matter if it's Ovechkin loading a one timer or Scott Gomez. Are you kidding me?

Lundqvist is done as being the vocal point of being the sole carrier of a team, sure. But he has never played behind a team with other, actual elite players to help him win. Ever.