SAN JOSE, California — This is more or less a one-year anniversary for Henrik Lundqvist, a year since he learned that the Rangers were deciding about going with “more” or “less.” It was at the NHL All-Star Game in 2018 that he, like everyone else, heard about the team’s proposed tear-down-and-start-over plan. He said at the time that he was not sweating it. He still isn’t.
Since then, the Rangers did go into the “future” mode, trading away veterans. Lundqvist made it clear at every step that he would not give up the ship. He was and is determined to stay on board, no matter how rough the seas might get.