Henrik Lundqvist is joining a team he tormented in the playoffs for years, Braden Holtby is leaving the franchise he led to the Stanley Cup, Jacob Markstrom got big bucks to join the Battle of Alberta and Anton Khudobin is staying home, after all.
The goaltender carousel spun wildly when NHL free agency opened Friday.
Lundqvist will continue his pursuit of the Cup with the Washington Capitals after signing a $1.5 million, one-year deal with one of the New York Rangers’ top rivals. The 38-year-old Swede was bought out by the New York Rangers after 15 seasons and will now play with Alex Ovechkin and help Washington try to win it all again.
”The Capitals, they checked every box,” Lundqvist said. ”A team that understands winning, a great coaching staff and an opportunity to play some games were the main factors for me. But there’s so many things that goes into this decision for me, starting with a chance to win. I think at this point in my career, that’s the most important thing: I want to have a chance to win.”
The longtime face of the Rangers will split duties in net with 23-year-old goalie of the future Ilya Samsonov. Washington added Lundqvist to replace 2016 Vezina Trophy and 2018 Stanley Cup winner Braden Holtby, who left to sign an $8.6 million, two-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks.
Holtby had to take a paycut, but in a flooded goalie market, the 30-year-old is glad he found a good fit with Vancouver.
”As it got down to it, you realize there are a lot of really good goalies out there and we all came up at the same time,” said Holtby, who will count $4.3 million against the salary cap the next two seasons and could be a top option for the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft because Vancouver has Thatcher Demko. ”It was a lot of uncertainty but really thankful that that is in the past now and worked out perfectly.”
Things really worked out perfectly for Markstrom, who left the Canucks to sign a $36 million, six-year contract with the Calgary Flames. It was the richest free-agent contract signed by mid-Friday afternoon with an annual cap hit just below the $6.25 million two-time Cup-winning goalie Matt Murray got from Ottawa after his trade there.
Another goalie who almost led his team to the Cup is sticking around. Khudobin, who famously yelled in the Dallas Stars locker room after winning the Western Conference, ”We’re not going home!” signed for three years and $10 million to stay.
The 34-year-old goaltender had an NHL-best .930 save percentage during the regular season and carried the banged-up Stars to the Cup Final in the Edmonton bubble with a .917 and 2.69 goals-against average playoffs.
Salary cap-strapped Dallas circled back to Khudobin after he tested the market in free agency. He’ll continue to play in tandem with Ben Bishop.
”Our goaltending has been as good as anybody in the league,” Stars GM Jim Nill said. ”We’ve had a lot of success. They play for each other. We’re fortunate to have two No. 1 goalies.”
In other goaltending movement, Cam Talbot left the Flames to sign an $11 million, three-year contract with the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota traded former starter Devan Dubnyk to San Jose earlier in the week.
A flurry of activity Friday leaves Thomas Greiss, Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard and two-time Cup-winner Corey Crawford as the top goalies left on the market.
Lundqvist didn’t last long as a free agent. The veteran of 887 NHL regular-season and 130 playoff games over his career is still trying to win the Cup for the first time. He backstopped Sweden to an Olympic gold medal in 2006 and a silver in 2014 and won the Vezina as the league’s top goalie in 2012.
He took the Rangers to the Cup Final in 2014, a rare year he didn’t face the Capitals in the playoffs. After losing series to them in 2009 and 2011, Lundqvist eliminated the Capitals three times: 2012, 2013 and 2015.
While Washington won it all with Holtby in 2018, Lundqvist endured a Rangers rebuild that saw him rotated in a three-goalie carousel with Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev. He hadn’t played in the playoffs since 2017 until two games in the qualifying round of the expanded, 24-team playoffs this past summer.
”Coming back in the summer my mindset was, `If this is it, let’s enjoy it,”’ said Lundqvist, who was told months ago by president John Davidson the Rangers were planning to move on. ”I had such a long time to prepare for that. I was at peace with it and grateful. When you feel gratitude toward something, it gives a lot back to you. So I was happy, feeling that gratitude toward the Rangers. And again it made it easier for me to take this next step.”
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AP Hockey Writers Larry Lage and John Wawrow and freelance writer Denis Gorman contributed.
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For more AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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