Saturday, July 30, 2011

Lundqvist Ranked Third Best NHL Goaltender


Puck Daddy's look at the top 25 players by position concluded with a look at the goaltenders around the NHL and Sam McCaig ranked the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist #3 behind only Tim Thomas and Pekka Rinne.
3. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers: Give Captain Shutout a goal, and he gives you a victory.
The order that McCraig has here is exactly how the Vezina order should have been for the 2010-11 season and there is no arguing with that being the order heading into next year.  Rinne had a year that most any other year would have easily won him the Vezina and there is no reason to expect him to come down from that level next season.  There is nothing else to be said about the year Tim Thomas had and coming off that year, you cannot place him anywhere but at the head of the list.

The goaltending position is the one in the NHL in which there is the most variation from year to year in how players seem to perform.  The New York Rangers and their fans have been spoiled because in his six seasons in the league Henrik Lundqvist has consistently been near the top of the list at his position.  Lundqvist has yet to be deemed the best goaltender in a given season, but it is hard to argue that over his six years he has not been the best overall because of his consistent performance year in and year out.

The Rangers have slowly built up the talent around Lundqvist and this is the year where between the defense in front of him, offense to help get him more wins and the rest Martin Biron can give him that Lundqvist can take home the Vezina and be fresh enough to carry the team in the playoffs.