Washington Capitals legend Henrik Lundqvist saw his 15-year NHL career cut short by an unfortunate health scare. The Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender was forced to hang up his skates at the advisement of his doctors in 2021 after developing “recurring pericarditis” in the months following open-heart surgery to fix a leaky valve and other ailments.
The now-43 year old opened up about the rollercoaster of emotions he experienced on the “Spittin’ Chiclets Podcast” on Tuesday, recalling his “I’m not done” moment in the off-season following his goodbye to New York Rangers fans.
“When my time in New York was over, I really thought I was going to hang it up, I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else, like it was impossible. But then I remember a month, two month after… I went to the rink just to skate and I loved it,” he recollected. “I was not done, I could feel it. In my body and in my head I felt like I had at least three more years, I felt great.”
Lundqvist spoke with multiple teams about continuing his pro career and landed on the Caps, describing the organization and city as “the best match for me, [my] family, where I’m at in my career.”
He signed a one-year deal with the club but never made his on-ice debut. His first meetings with team doctors eventually put his final act on hold.
“I knew I had a condition where my valve was leaky, I’ve known that for years. I knew at some point, [I’m] probably going to have to do something. But it was steady for so many years,” he explained. “And then that fall, already first meetings with the doctors in Washington, ‘What do you think about this?’ … I’ll never forget it, I brought up like bags to pack and go to Washington… and [we] have a call with the doctors and they [say], ‘No, no all the tests, everything is actually worse than we thought,’ … and then my aorta was too big so we needed to replace that and the valve was hanging on, so, yeah, it’s kind of an easy decision to say, ‘I have to do it.’ If it was in the gray area, I would’ve told my wife, ‘I’m doing this. I’m gonna play.’ But when you hear that, you knew there’s no going back.”
Despite being aware of his heart issue for most of his playing career, Lundqvist found it eye-opening to learn how much deeper his ailment actually went.
“I had it for many years, I didn’t know about the aorta,” he described. “Then the pressure in my heart, that happened over time and put a lot of stress on it but the valve itself, probably born with it. It was just not closing well enough.”
Lundqvist starred in a Netflix documentary on his health journey titled “Open Heart” which debuted in North America last May. He revealed Tuesday that it was originally supposed to document his NHL comeback before post-surgery complications arose.
“It’s funny, when I start to think about maybe telling my story it was more about, not just my career, more the power of being in a good place mentally,” he said. “I think we all go through stuff in life where everything just gets turned upside down. How do you deal with that? How do you find happiness? And I did, so I was like, ‘Wow this is cool, how do I tell this story?’ But I want to show when I come back to the NHL. That was my mindset. Kinda the road back.”
His big return, in his eyes, was supposed to be joining the Caps for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Just a few months after surgery I was really close to coming back, I reached out to Washington, ‘Okay I’m ready, I’ll come join you guys in April,’ like a couple weeks before the playoffs,” he describe. “I was skating hard for a month and a half, felt unreal… The first couple weeks after open heart [surgery] I was not walking, every week got better and better… In my head, I was coming back… A month and a half on the ice, I was just a week away to join the Caps and I had the follow up test for the surgery, and I had a lot of chest pain. So I told them about that concern, ‘What’s going on there?’ I thought it was related to the surgery, but unfortunately for me I had pericarditis – which is inflammation around the heart. Created somehow, we don’t know why.
“It can happen after surgery but like three months out, so maybe I had a virus in my body, something that kind of attacked the heart,” he continued. “Most people have it one time and it’s gone. For me, unfortunately, I had recurring pericarditis, so it kept coming back. So instead of going to Washington, we shut it down, I think it was like six months later I tried going back on the ice and it came back. And then when it came back, I knew, ‘It’s over.’ That’s when I retired.”
Lundqvist, who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final only once in his career (2014), lamented that his condition denied him one last shot at a championship campaign.
“It was never meant to be,” he said.
However, he’s still proud of the elite achievements on his career resume, topped with having his no. 30 retired by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden the very next year.
“It’s hard… when you feel like you have more to give,” he said. “Honestly, physically, mentally, I felt so good but I knew I can’t fight this thing. So, it was time to hang it up. But me only playing for the Rangers, it was meant to be, looking back at it… I know I made the right decision to hang it up when I did.”
Lundqvist currently serves as a studio analyst for “The NHL on TNT” and for MSG Network’s broadcasts of Rangers games.
