Background and career
Henrik Lundqvist (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̌nːrɪk ˈlɵ̂nːdkvɪst]; born 2 March 1982) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. He played as a goaltender for 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers. Before winning the Vezina Trophy in 2012, he was nominated in each of his first three seasons, and is the only goaltender in NHL history to record eleven 30-win seasons in his first twelve seasons. He holds the record for most wins by a European-born goaltender in the NHL. His dominating play during his rookie season resulted in the New York media and Rangers fans giving him the nickname "King Henrik". Lundqvist is considered a butterfly style goaltender, though unorthodox because of the aggressive way he performs the butterfly. He is best known for his athleticism, strong positional play, concentration on tracking pucks, upright torso stance and quick reflexes. Lundqvist was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2023. In Europe before the NHL, Lundqvist played for Frölunda HC in Swedish Elitserien. During his years in Sweden, he developed into the league's finest goaltender, winning the Honken Trophy in three consecutive seasons (2003, 2004, and 2005). In 2005, he also won two of the most prestigious awards in Swedish ice hockey, the Guldpucken (Golden Puck) and the Guldhjälmen (Golden Helmet). Internationally, he played for the Sweden men's national team. During the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he led Sweden to their second Olympic gold medal. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2025.
Lundqvist grew up with his identical twin brother Joel in Åre, Jämtland, an area where alpine skiing is the most popular winter activity, though Henrik and Joel chose to play ice hockey over the more popular winter sports. During the winters, their kindergarten teachers used the kindergarten's 9 m × 3 m (29.5 ft × 9.8 ft) sandpit to freeze an outdoor ice rink where the twins would frequently skate. Their interest in hockey grew even stronger when their father Peter took the twins to see Västra Frölunda HC play in Scandinavium, Gothenburg. Henrik has said he and Joel were very competitive growing up, in sports as well as school. Peter worked for a company which sponsored Frölunda, and Henrik and Joel saw many games in Scandinavium, where Frölunda became their favorite team. In 1990, Henrik and Joel joined Järpens IF and started playing organized hockey for the first time. During one practice, when the coach asked if anyone wanted to be a goaltender, Joel grabbed and raised Henrik's arm and said that his brother would like to. In 1993, the family moved to Båstad, Skåne, in southern Sweden to support their older sister Gabriella's tennis career. Henrik and Joel then joined local team Rögle BK, and were both selected for Scania's regional team in Sverigepucken in 1995. Henrik was selected to play for Scania in TV-pucken in 1996, and in 1997, when Joel was also selected. During the 1997–98 season, Henrik and Joel were extensively scouted by Frölunda, and while playing for Rögle in the 1998 Scandinavium Cup in Gothenburg, Frölunda's junior team manager and under-16 coach Janne Karlsson contacted their father, who told Henrik and Joel about Frölunda's interest in them while driving home to Båstad.
After having a successful pre-season, Lundqvist made his Elitserien debut in the season opener on 21 September 2000 in a 4–2 loss against Brynäs IF. Lundqvist bounced back and recorded his first win in the following away game against IF Björklöven, stopping 18 shots and only allowing one goal while being short-handed. In his third straight start, Lundqvist allowed two early first period goals in a game against Timrå IK and was pulled in favour of veteran goaltender Håkan Algotsson. Lundqvist would dress for only ten more games that season and earned only one start, a shootout loss to Djurgårdens IF. Lundqvist lost his roster spot to American veteran goaltender Pat Jablonski, who joined the team in October. Tommy Boustedt, the coach of the team at the time, later said that:
Malfeasance, I think in hindsight, that he didn't get to start in more games that season. He showed then that he was that good. He should have played more, no doubt about it.
Lundqvist played in nine games for IF Mölndal Hockey in the Swedish second tier Allsvenskan before joining Frölunda's junior team in the J20 SuperElit in December. After his poor play in Allsvenskan and a tough start in the J20 SuperElit, he allowed six goals in an exhibition game against Canada. National junior team coaches Bo "Kulon" Lennartsson and Mikael Tisell were worried and decided to have a talk with Lundqvist, where they questioned his motivation. Lundqvist's turning point came at the turn of the year at the 2001 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Moscow, where he led the Swedish national junior's team to a fourth-place finish in the tournament. He spent the rest of the season in the J20 SuperElit where he played 18 games, leading the league in minutes played by a goaltender. In the playoffs, he led Frölunda to their second straight Anton Cup win, which came in a 5–2 win over Leksands IF in the final at the Stockholm Globe Arena. In December 2004, The Hockey News rated Lundqvist the sixth-best European prospect, the lone goaltender in their European top-ten list. Also in December, Lundqvist joined fellow future Rangers prospect Al Montoya on McKeen's list of top goaltending prospects, where he was ranked seventh in the group. During the 2004–05 season, Lundqvist broke four Swedish national records: lowest goals against average (1.05), highest save percentage (.962), longest goalless streak (at 172 minutes and 29 seconds) and most shutouts in a season (6). He was also named Best Goaltender, Best Player and was selected as the league's MVP by fellow players. In 180 appearances with Frölunda, he amassed a 1.96 goals against average (GAA) and a .927 save percentage, leading them to four consecutive playoff appearances and winning two titles in 2003 and 2005.
At the beginning of his rookie season in 2005–06, Lundqvist was slotted into the Rangers lineup as a backup to starting goaltender Kevin Weekes. After losing Weekes to injury in the second game of the season against the Montreal Canadiens, Lundqvist made his long-anticipated NHL debut on 8 October 2005, against the New Jersey Devils, stopping 24 of 27 shots in a 3–2 overtime loss. Five days later, on 13 October, Lundqvist made his home debut in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden in what was his first NHL win, a 4–1 victory against the Devils. Lundqvist, who would be known throughout his NHL career and international play simply as "The King," was first given this nickname by the New York Post Rangers beat columnist, Larry Brooks, on 16 October, following Lundqvist's performance against the Atlanta Thrashers, a 5–1 victory for the Rangers. Larry Brooks, in describing Lundqvist's performance in the game wrote the following:
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
