Lundqvist Rewarded For His Loyalty To The New York Rangers

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Here's an article from the folks at Fan Duel:


Lundqvist Rewarded For His Loyalty To The New York Rangers

The 2013-2014 season has not been one to remember so far for Henrik Lundqvist, but the New York Rangers still decided to reward their long-time goaltender with a seven-year extension worth $59.5 million. Some have criticized the deal, but Lundqvist has always been a professional and leader for the Blueshirts. In fact, his loyalty to the franchise is a major reason why he was rewarded with such a lucrative extension.

It is rare to see a player in professional sports stay with the same franchise their entire career. Now that Lundqvist has signed a seven-year extension at age 31, he will likely retire with the team. Even though Cam Talbot has put a lot of pressure on the veteran, Lundqvist is still thought of highly within the organization.

The former Vezina Trophy winner might be off to a slow start, but the track record for him is something that is hard to argue with. Fantasy hockey owners have enjoyed outstanding numbers from him year after year. Just because his goals against average and save percentage is at an all-time low isn’t that major of a concern either. It is still less than halfway through a single season, and the New York Rangers haven’t provided a lot of help for him so far this season. At age 31, he isn’t THAT old yet, and he can certainly get back to his prime numbers.

One knock on Lundqvist, and the New York Rangers in general, is that they have not been all that competitive in recent years. They won a division championship in 2011-2012, but they haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1994. Some wonder if the extension for Lundqvist could hurt them financially going forward, but he isn’t making an absurd amount of money going forward.

At the end of the day, this is a move that the New York Rangers should have made. He hasn’t been good since signing the deal, but he has enough history to turn things around. His loyalty to the franchise should pay off down the line once he gets out of his funk.