Window to Win is Closing

The Rangers, present and future, will only go as far as the back of Henrik Lundqvist can take them. Lundqvist, entering his age 27/28 season (he turns 28 in March), will be the goalie of the Rangers for the indefinite future. At 27, he is entering the prime of his career. Incidentally, Hank’s current contract runs out right as the prime of his career ends, after his age 31/32 season. Considering Hank’s workload –in shots per game, high quality shots per game, and games per season– it is safe to assume that once he hits his thirties, he won’t be able to handle the same workload, or will attempt to and breakdown very quickly.

With no goaltending in the system at the moment, the team lives and dies by Hank. By the time his prime is up, it may be too late for the Rangers. The best chance they had was in 2007, when an errant pass by Marek Malik and a timely goal by Chris Drury essentially cost the Rangers a 2nd round win over Buffalo. There is a sense of urgency amongst the fan base, because we all sense it: Once Hank goes, our chances at a Cup go with him. The sense of urgency is not without fault, you need strong goaltending to win a Cup. Even teams with questionable goaltending ride a hot goalie through the playoffs.

It’s not often you get a perrennial Vezina candidate on your team, and you have to make the most of it when it happens. That’s what the well-run organizations do, they win when they have the opportunity. That’s what sets the Rangers apart from everyone, and not in a good way. With poor cap management, the organization may have squandered their opportunity to win a Cup with Hank in net. They may have squandered the gift-wrapped netminder, taken in the 7th round in 2000.

So what can the Rangers do? Well, the Rangers have three of the five components you need to build a contender: goaltending, penalty killing, and defense. Those are the hardest three to come by in this league, so that’s a positive. But, the anemic offense and the pathetic powerplay cripple this team and really leaves them without a legitimate shot of producing a winning team. One problem may solve the other though, as getting the powerplay back to respectability, by finding someone to quarterback it, is one way to solve some offensive woes. How they plan on solving that problem though, is beyond me. Maybe Wade Redden can find his powerplay quarterbacking skills under John Tortorella, under whom he has played better. Maybe Michael Del Zotto or Bobby Sanguinetti live up to their potential, make the team in the Fall, and quarterback the powerplay back to respectability. Maybe Michael Rozsival shoots more, thus making him more of a threat on the powerplay? Who knows.

But I digress.

Hank’s prime, and his contract are up in 2014, when he will be 32. Can they win a Cup with an aging Hank? Of course. But wouldn’t you be a little worried with a 32+ year old goalie? No one knows how he will age, when he will show his age, or even if it will affect his game. I give him until 35 before he starts to slow down, but reflexes are usually the first to go, well, that and injury recover time, but that isn’t relevant for the point of this post. Hank’s game relies on reflexes, when those go, he goes.

His age 35 season is 8 years away. It seems so far, but then again, it’s not that far away.