Well, Henrik Lundvqist won’t be suiting up for the Washington Capitals this season after all as the 15-season NHL veteran netminder is sitting out the 2020-21 season due to a heart condition.
Lundqvist made the announcement in a statement on social media before the Capitals followed it up with a video that offered a little more insight– if not more emotion– to the gravity of the situation.
Here’s hoping “King Henrik” can rest easy and recover in time for what very well could be his last shot at a Stanley Cup ring in 2021-22 if this isn’t already it for his playing days.
Lundqvist amassed 459 wins– the 6th most among goaltenders in league history– all with the New York Rangers prior to being bought out of the final year of his contract this offseason and signing with Washington back on Oct. 9th.
He has a 459-310-96 record in 887 games from the 2005-06 season through 2019-20, as well as a career 2.43 goals against average, a career .918 save percentage and 64 shutouts.
Lundqvist holds the regular season records for most games played (887), wins (459), shutouts (64) and points (27), as well as the most Stanley Cup Playoff games played (130), postseason wins (61) and shutouts (10) in Rangers franchise history.
As for Washington’s backup goaltender situation, the search might just continue with Lundqvist’s one-year, $1.500 million contract landing on the long term injured reserve for this season.
Ryan Miller, Cory Schneider, Jimmy Howard and Craig Anderson are some of the bigger names remaining on the free agent market, while the Caps could opt for a backup from within the organization in Pheonix Copley, Vitek Vanecek or Zachary Fucale.
The Capitals were projected to be about a million dollars over the NHL’s $81.5 million salary cap ceiling prior to Lundqvist’s announcement, so General Manager, Brian MacLellan, will likely already have his hand dealt to him as a result.
Down the Frozen River 
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