Lundqvist, selected by the Rangers in the seventh round (No. 205) of the 2000 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut with New York on Oct. 8, 2005. He is 449-298-93 in 857 games. He is New York's all-time leader among goalies in games played, wins and shutouts (63), and sixth on the NHL all-time wins list.
He repeatedly has expressed his desire to stay with the Rangers during the rebuild, which saw New York trade forwards Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello, and defenseman Adam McQuaid, prior to the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline. The Rangers went 4-8-2 in their final 14 games, including a 1-6-1 stretch from March 11-27.
Lundqvist was too emotional to speak one day after Zuccarello, his close friend, was sent to the Dallas Stars.
"As we were starting to trade some of his friends again and the season with how it was unfolding, I think it was a lot for him mentally to go through that again and it was difficult and showed in his play," Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton said after the season. "But when I think of his season, I think of how good he was at the beginning of the year and it didn't go well for our team from the deadline on, and he is no different than any player.
"The guy is still a great goalie, I'm convinced of that and I just think that it didn't go his way the last few games and I look for him to be great again."
Rangers coach David Quinn also expressed his faith in Lundqvist after the season.
"He's still one of the top goalies in the League," Quinn said. "And he's a part of our future."
Lundqvist will play in his sixth World Championship and represent Sweden in a major international tournament for the 14th time. He won a gold medal in 2017 after going 5-0-0 with a 1.31 GAA and .946 save percentage.
"I don't know how many more years I'll get to play hockey, how many opportunities I'll get to play in a World Championship," Lundqvist said. "It took me a while to digest what happened this season. But once I did, I felt strongly that the opportunity to compete for another World Championship was too good to pass up on."