As the 2000 NHL draft entered its late stages, the energy had fizzled out of the New York Rangers‘ war room.
“Back then, the drafts were nine rounds, and by the sixth or seventh, you’re just looking for a player that someone semi-likes,” explained then-assistant general manager Don Maloney. “You’re just trying to stay awake more than anything else.”
The Rangers had already drafted a goalie, American-born Brandon Snee, in the fifth round. “But we didn’t have anyone in our system we were really high on,” Maloney said. “So by the seventh round, we said, ‘We really should think about another goalie here.'”
Sitting to Maloney’s right was Martin Madden, the head of amateur scouting. On Maloney’s left was Christer Rockstrom, the team’s head European scout. Maloney glanced over at Rockstrom’s notebook, and noticed a bunch of names crossed out except for one at the top: Henrik Lundqvist‘s.
“Christer,” Maloney whispered. “Is that your top goaltender in Europe that hasn’t been selected?”
“Yes,” Rockstrom responded. “But Martin saw him and didn’t like him, so don’t bring his name up.”
Maloney was incredulous.
“It was so illogical — Christer has a great track record, why wouldn’t we take this Lundqvist guy?” Maloney said.
So Maloney brought his concerns to Madden. “In Martin’s defense — and why I think Henrik fell in that draft — Henrik wasn’t very good in the last tournament that all the scouts see,” Maloney said. “But Martin basically said, ‘Fine, we’ll take him.’ Christer looked at me and was like, ‘I can’t believe it. Don — why are you trying to get me in trouble with my boss?'”
And so goes the story of how the New York Rangers snagged one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history with the 205th overall pick — after 21 other goaltenders had been selected.
“To Martin’s credit, he went back [to Sweden] the following fall after we drafted Henrik,” Maloney said. “He called me right away after the tournament and said: ‘Don, I think we have a goalie here.'”
A worldwide legacy
Lundqvist, 39, announced his retirement last week after learning that inflammation in his heart would prevent a comeback. For his entire 15-year career, Lundqvist was the face of the Rangers, and one of the most popular athletes in New York City.
Though Lundqvist transcended hockey — he’s been named one of People magazine’s Most Beautiful People, landed on GQ’s Most Stylish Men list and once played “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” — he’ll also be remembered as one of the best goalies to never win a Stanley Cup. Only Roberto Luongo has posted more wins (489 to Lundqvist’s 459) without hoisting Lord Stanley.
It was a dominant run for Lundqvist in New York. The Rangers missed the playoffs for the seven seasons before Lundqvist arrived and were stuck in a rut in throwing money at big-name, past-their-prime free agents. They missed the playoffs just once in Lundqvist’s first 12 seasons, with a marketable homegrown star around whom to build.
Lundqvist’s run on Broadway coincided with $1 billion in renovations to Madison Square Garden, and the Rangers overtaking the Toronto Maple Leafs on Forbes’ list of most valuable franchises, ending a 14-year drought.
From 2005-06 to 2019-20, Lundqvist posted more shutouts (64) than any other goaltender, while his 61 playoff wins and 10 playoff shutouts rank second, to Marc-Andre Fleury. Lundqvist sits atop the Rangers’ goaltending wins list, with 459, which is 158 more than second-place Mike Richter.
Lundqvist, a five-time All Star and three-time Vezina Trophy finalist (including a win in 2012) was loyal to a fault, and quickly identified as a New Yorker. When the Rangers bought out the final year of his contract in 2020, he chose his next team based on two criteria: Could he win a Stanley Cup there? And was it close to New York?
Lundqvist pushed hard for an NHL comeback. He was close. Aaron Voros, his former teammate and good friend, shot pucks for Lundqvist over the last six months at skating sessions at a private rink in Alpine, New Jersey. According to Voros, they ran the skates like a typical NHL skills session, with Voros shooting 1,000 pucks per day.
“He was looking good, he was looking really good,” Voros said. “But his heart, to no fault of his own, is letting him down.”
Lundqvist retires as an icon, not only in New York. His impact is perhaps even greater in his native Sweden, where Lundqvist is known as much as being “the shampoo guy” as “the hockey guy,” thanks to his near-ubiquitous Head & Shoulders campaign. His impact in the Swedish hockey community skyrocketed after he led his country to Olympic gold in 2006.
“I have a goalie school in the north of Sweden, and I work with hundreds of goalies,” said Erik Granqvist, a former goalie and Swedish TV analyst. “And everyone — every girl and every boy that I met — have had Henrik Lundqvist as their role model. In Sweden, Nicklas Lidstrom has been the role model for all the defensemen, and Peter Forsberg for the forwards, and now it’s Henrik Lundqvist for the goalies. He’s unbelievably popular. Every step he takes is news in the newspapers. The interest in Sweden for the NHL increased significantly because of Henrik Lundqvist “
One of those who cites Lundqvist as their idol is Jesper Wallstedt, the No. 20 pick of the 2021 draft — the highest-drafted Swedish goalie ever. Wallstedt grew up going to Lundqvist’s goalie camps. When I asked Wallstedt before the draft if he remembered any advice Lundqvist gave to him, he said: “To be honest, not really. I was just starstruck.”
Different is good
After the 2004-05 lockout, the Rangers were interested in bringing Lundqvist over to North America. “But we were not bringing Henrik over, in my mind, to be the starting goaltender for the New York Rangers,” Maloney said. “We had a more typical development path in mind, with him playing in the AHL for a period of time.”
Lundqvist showed up with other ideas. And by then, his reputation was already starting to grow.
Kevin Weekes, now an ESPN analyst, had just signed with the Rangers as a free agent. “I had heard from friends of mine playing in Europe of how awesome this guy is, like ‘he’s unbelievable, he’s so good, you have to see him,'” Weekes said. “Jose Theodore was over there playing, he’s obviously had an amazing career, 2002 league MVP, and people were saying Henrik was better than him.”
Lundqvist showed up to training camp, and right away Weekes sensed something special.
“He looked different. He dressed differently, he had that punk rocker Rod Stewart haircut, slim-fitting suits with a skinny tie, that retro look off the ice,” Weekes said. “But on the ice, he was really different too. His stance was different. The way his feet were positioned was different. He just looked radically different from anyone I had ever seen play.”
Weekes had come off a career year in 2003-04, but didn’t play during the lockout season of 2004-05 as part of a faction of players worried they might be blackballed by NHL owners. “I remember calling home, talking to my dad: ‘This guy is good. Really good.’ Even if I played the year before, and even if I had played at that level prior to the stoppage, there was no stopping the tsunami or the force that just was.”
Said Maloney: “He showed up at that first training camp just relentless. He worked on everything. All great goaltenders have that great internal drive to them. With Henrik’s makeup, and personality, and the tutelage of [longtime Rangers goalie coach] Benoit Allaire who helped him adjust his game and get him a little more in control, it was a match made in heaven for many years.”
“We had a real eclectic mix,” Weekes said. “Even though Jagr scored like 120-something points for us one year and is one of the best players to ever play, and Shanny is a Hall of Famer, Henrik was our best player.”
The crowd at Madison Square Garden, and the tabloids in New York, all fell in love with Lundqvist, anointing him “The King.” But Lundqvist’s staying power at the top is often attributed to his class. He showed up for every hospital and community visit. He never bragged, even as high-end designers like Dior began sending suits for him to the practice facility. In the locker room, he’d acknowledge his teammates for a blocked shot or important faceoff.
And he backed it all up with his work ethic; if a player got called up from the AHL, Lundqvist was on the ice with him after practice, taking shots for an extra 40 minutes.
“Even though he’s super intense getting after it from time to time, slamming his stick or things like that, that year and over time he realized, ‘I need everyone around me. As great as I am, I need everyone around me too,'” Weekes said. “And that just speaks to his class factor. Because some guys don’t figure that out.”
Said Granqvist: “He was a superstar, playing the most difficult positions in pro sports, and he handled it with class — even after super tough losses, like to the Los Angeles Kings in the Final in 2014. As we talk about ending the stigma of mental health, Henrik Lundqvist has really been open about being stressed before games. But he says it’s OK, because there are ways to handle it and embrace it. And now, during this process with the heart surgery, and accepting it, he also has a mental coach that supported him. You have this extremely successful and beautiful man, but he says: ‘I can’t do it alone. I need help and support sometimes, because it can be very lonely to be there at the top.'”
What comes next?
Last week, Lundqvist invited Granqvist to Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden — the same rink where Lundqvist watched his first professional hockey game as a kid.
Granqvist was told he would be given a one-hour exclusive interview with Lundqvist to talk about the upcoming season, and perhaps the goalie’s last push to win the Stanley Cup. “He made so many unbelievable saves in his career,” Granqvist said. “But the deke he made on all of the media here was so great.”
Turns out, Lundqvist invited all of the media outlets in Sweden, both newspaper and broadcasts. “Everyone came and thought they were going to have a one-hour exclusive by themselves,” Granqvist. “But then he just came in and said, ‘I have a new chapter in my life. I’m retiring.’ It was like ‘whoa, what’s happening.'”
All of the questions Granqvist prepared were now irrelevant. Everyone was told they would now have five to 10 minutes to talk to Lundqvist.
“But that five to 10 minutes became nearly 20 minutes for everyone,” Granqvist. “It was just so beautiful because it was just another example of him being a class act. He was so present, and so open about sharing deep thoughts about this tough year it has been. He talked about how he started to find gratitude again, for all the experiences. And also that he found a happy place inside himself.
“Of course he would like to stop on his own terms, but now the heart and doctor says it’s not possible. It took a couple weeks, but he accepted this fact. He’s always been this guy that puts so much time in his preparation, and plays with full passion. He controls what he can control, and in announcing his retirement, he was able to do his way, so he could be really present and attentive.”
Lundqvist plans on moving back to New York next week; his daughters are enrolled in school there and he wants to raise his children in the city. It feels fitting, because Lundqvist always identified as a New Yorker.
When Voros joined the Rangers in 2008, there were only two players who lived in Manhattan over the summers: Lundqvist and Sean Avery.
As Voros joined their group, he and Lundqvist bonded over their love of foreign sports cars and good Italian food. They also subscribed to the same belief system: They lived in the best city in the world. New York City was for going out. The road is for staying in.
Lundqvist always had interests outside of hockey, including guitar, and has dabbled in some investments, including co-owning a New York restaurant with Voros. As for what comes next, post-retirement? According to his friends, Lundqvist is still figuring it out.
“I’m excited to see what he does next,” Voros said. “He literally could do anything he wanted right now. Anything. The world is his oyster.”
LEBANON, Tenn. — Ryan Blaney and Team Penske have been fast with his No. 12 Ford Mustang this year only to have races slip away when it mattered most.
Not Sunday night.
Blaney ran away down the stretch for his first Cup Series victory of the year Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway, then he celebrated with a burnout in front of the roaring fans after what he called a rough year.
“I’m ready to go celebrate,” Blaney said.
The 2023 Cup champ had been racing well with five top-five finishes over the first half of this season. He finally got to victory lane for his 14th career victory and first since Martinsville in November.
“I never gave up hope that’s for sure,” Blaney said. “We’ve had great speed all year. It just hasn’t really been the best year for us as far as good fortune. But [No.] 12 boys are awesome. They stick with it no matter how it goes.”
He became the ninth different winner this season and the fifth driver to win in as many races at Nashville. He also gave Team Penske a second straight Cup win at Nashville’s 1.33-mile concrete track.
Blaney, who started 15th, quickly drove his way to the front as he won the second stage. He easily held off Carson Hocevar by 2.83 seconds. Hocevar matched his career-best finish at Atlanta in February after complaining during the race that his No. 77 Chevrolet was undriveable.
“Either I’m really dramatic or they’re really good on adjustments,” Hocevar said. “Probably a little bit of both, but, yeah, proud of this group proud of this car. A place that is really, really difficult to pass, we’re able to go 26th to second.”
Denny Hamlin finished third in his 700th career Cup Series race, matching the third-place finish by Jeff Gordon at Darlington in 2013 for the best finish in a driver’s 700th race. Joey Logano, who won here last year, was fourth and William Byron fifth.
Hamlin was hoping for one more caution that never came after seven cautions for 35 laps.
“Just couldn’t run with the 12 [Blaney] there in the super long run,” Hamlin said. “After 40 laps, I could maintain with him. But then after that, he just pulled away and stretched it on us.”
There was a sprint to the finish under green forcing teams and drivers to pick and choose when to pit. Blaney had led 107 laps when he went to the pits under green flag on lap 248. Hamlin took the lead before going to pit road on lap 256.
Crew chief Jonathan Hassler said they decided on Blaney’s fifth and final pit stop to try to make sure he could get back out into the cleanest air possible.
“It was really nice just to finish off a race,” Hassler said.
Brad Keselowski had the lead when he went to the pits on lap 269. Blaney took the lead for the final 31 laps.
Waiting on a call
Hamlin raced Sunday night hoping to take advantage of his starting spot spot beside pole-sitter Chase Briscoe. Whether Hamlin would chase his third win this season had been in question with his third child, a boy, due the same day.
Hamlin practiced and qualified well, so he drove his No. 11 Toyota even as Joe Gibbs Racing had Ryan Truex on standby in case Hamlin got the call that his fiancee was in labor. Hamlin won the first stage and survived the final stretch without water or fresh air.
Tyler Reddick beat his boss Hamlin, a co-owner of his 23XI Racing team, to new parent status, which Reddick announced on social media earlier Sunday.
His family welcomed their second son at 2:20 a.m. on May 25, then Reddick followed up hours later by finishing 26th in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Early night
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. didn’t finish his first race this year. He was the first out when Hocevar tapped his No. 47 Chevrolet, spinning Stenhouse into the wall between Turns 3 and 4 for the second caution of the race on lap 106.
Punishment and more penalties possible?
AJ Allmendinger started at the back of the field and served a stop-and-go penalty after the green flag for an unapproved adjustment to the splitter during Saturday’s practice. His No. 16 Chevrolet was sent back to the garage and then the scanning station before practice and qualifying.
The No. 66 Ford of Chad Finchum failed inspection twice leading to engineer Austin Webb’s ejection. The Garage 66 team also lost pit stall selection.
Up next
NASCAR heads to Michigan International Speedway for the Cup Series on June 8.
The Kansas City Royals are calling up slugger Jac Caglianone, one of the top prospects in baseball, less than a year after choosing him with the sixth pick in the draft, sources tell ESPN.
In his first full professional season, the 22-year-old Caglianone has crushed pitching at Double-A and Triple-A, combining for 15 home runs and 56 RBIs across 50 games while hitting .322/.389/.593.
A 6-foot-5, 250-pound two-way player at the University of Florida, Caglianone transitioned to a full-time offensive player after joining the Royals organization following last July’s draft. Originally a first baseman, he has spent the majority of his Triple-A games in the outfield and is expected to play there when he joins the Royals for their series that starts Tuesday in St. Louis.
Caglianone’s calling card is top-of-the-scale power, seen in numerous tape-measure home runs this season. With exit velocities that rival Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, Caglianone is expected to eventually be a staple in the middle of the Royals’ order along with Bobby Witt Jr.
For a player with such immense power, Caglianone has struck out in only 20% of his plate appearances this season. Kansas City was loathe to promote him, though, because of fears that he chased too many pitches outside of the strike zone and could be exposed by premium pitches in the major leagues.
Kansas City’s offensive struggles buried those fears enough to summon him to the big leagues.
The Royals, in fourth place in the American League Central with a 31-29 record, have allowed the second-fewest runs in Major League Baseball, 201, behind only the New York Mets. They’ve scored the second fewest, 194, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies, who at 9-50 are trending toward the worst record in MLB history.
The Royals’ outfielders in particular have struggled mightily. In 663 plate appearances this season, they are hitting .237/.283/.330 with seven home runs and 46 RBIs. The slugging percentage, home runs and RBI totals are all the worst in MLB.
PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks ace Corbin Burnes was lifted after just 70 pitches Sunday against Washington with right elbow discomfort.
Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters after Arizona’s 3-1 win that Burnes would have an MRI on Monday.
Arizona led 3-0 in the top of the fifth when Burnes allowed a single by CJ Abrams with two outs. The right-hander then gestured toward the dugout with his glove and yelled in frustration.
Jalen Beeks replaced Burnes and gave up an RBI single before getting the third out. Arizona won the game 3-1.
Burnes allowed a run and four hits in 4 2/3 innings, with a walk and six strikeouts. He is 3-2 with a 2.66 ERA in 11 starts this season.
Arizona signed Burnes to a $210 million, six-year contract before the season. He has been effective, but the Diamondbacks have dealt with a slew of pitching injuries. Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery) is out for the season, Eduardo Rodríguez (shoulder) is on the injured list, and reliever A.J. Puk (elbow) is on the IL as well.
Arizona allowed 10 runs in the first inning Saturday, its ninth loss in 10 games.
Durability hasn’t been much of a concern for the 30-year-old Burnes, who has made at least 28 starts in every season since he won the 2021 National League Cy Young Award for Milwaukee. He spent his first six years with the Brewers before being traded to Baltimore before the 2024 season. After one year with the Orioles, he signed with the Diamondbacks as a free agent.
