Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
Finally, New York Rangers fans, we have an update on next years’ biggest unrestricted free agent, Henrik Lundqvist. The update, however, consists of both good news and bad news.
According to Sporting News, Lundqvist sounds like he does not want to ever leave the Rangers and New York City. The bad news is that he doesn’t seem particularly excited about signing an eight-year contract extension with the team.
Now according to an exact quote from Lundqvist, “the way the organization and fans have treated me/how much I’ve enjoyed it —it’s hard to picture myself playing elsewhere.”
So if that were the case, then why would he be reluctant to sign an eight-year, long-term extension with the Blueshirts?
One cannot deny the fact that Lundqvist has been hung out to dry in his entire career, all with the Rangers, by not giving him the goal support that any goaltender needs. Lundqvist is arguably the best goaltender in the National Hockey League but even the best needs more than zero or one goal to work with.
Lundqvist is the sole reason why the Rangers have had some playoff success but they will never get to that next level and win a Stanley Cup unless they can score some goals, and sadly Lundqvist cannot score for them.
With an entirely new coaching staff lead by head coach Alain Vigneault, the Rangers are going to play a more up-tempo style of offense, something the Rangers have never played since Lundqvist has been in net all of these years.
I believe Lundqvist wants to see how Vigneault does and how the Rangers forwards and defenseman respond, and if they indeed score more goals like they are now supposed to. This is why I think he does not want to sign an eight-year contract. Lundqvist does not want to be locked up long term before he even sees how the team responds to this change of strategy and does not want to continue being hung out to dry for another eight years.
This is most likely the reason why Lundqvist wants fewer years from the Rangers just to see how everything plays out first before committing his entire career with the Rangers. But that is just one man’s opinion. What do you think?
Steven Carollo is a New York Rangers’ and sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and join his Google network.
