Henrik Lundqvist announces his retirement
"The King" is leaving professional hockey. After attempting to make a comeback following heart surgery and missing all of last season, Henrik Lundqvist is calling it a career. He made the announcement in Gothenburg, Sweden.
"It's the place where I watched my first real hockey game when I was 6 years old," Henrik Lundqvist had told The New York Post before he made the trip to the rink. "That's where I really started to watch hockey. That's when my dream began that one day I would play there for Frolunda."
Lundqvist spent his entire career with the New York Rangers before being bought out of the final year of his contract before the start of last season. He hold pretty much every franchise goaltending record there is to hold with the Rangers. After the buyout, he was signed to a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals, but never got the chance to play for them after is was determined he needed surgery to repair an irregular heartbeat.
"When [this] summer started, my plan was still to come back," said Lundqvist. "I started working out again and was skating, but without any contact. But there were some setbacks. Too much exertion caused some chest pain."
"I was hoping I would be 100 percent by this time. But I was told that inflammation takes a long time to correct and with medication I might be out of the woods, but it could be another full year before I would be 100 percent."
"So I thought about this, talked with my closest friends, my family and my wife, Therese. This year was probably harder for her than for me. She is such a strong woman. It came down to how badly I wanted to push it, how much of a gamble did I want to take? And I came to the conclusion that there are too many unknowns and too much risk for not enough reward for me to keep playing."
"It's all still fresh. I decided only a few days ago," said the 39-year-old. "But I am at peace. I look back at my career, and all I have is gratitude and pride. I am just so grateful."
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||