This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
Henrik Lundqvist played 15 years in the NHL for the New York Rangers. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2023. He is now a hockey analyst for TNT.
These are the three best leaders he played with during his career.
Jaromír Jágr, New York Rangers forward
It was after the lockout in 2005. There were a lot of new guys coming in, and nobody really knew how we were going to do.
Jágr was obviously the star, and for me, it was the way he embraced the role of being the guy. He handled everything and took on a lot of the pressure; he didn’t shy away from it.
I looked up to him because of the way he handled it, and I think he gave the group a lot of confidence because of the way he handled it. He was not the most vocal guy, but you could see that he put that pressure on himself to carry the team.
I always remember one game. We were playing in Pittsburgh, and every time we played there, they always booed him because he left. As soon as he touched the puck, they were on him.
One time, he had to leave the ice in the middle of the game and head back to the locker room. You could feel the energy of our team go down. Then he came into the game and scored a hat trick.
It was just one of those moments where I was like, “Yeah, this guy is special.”
At that point, he was 33, so he was extremely established, and he was the big star of the league. But his commitment to the game really stood out.
He did everything he believed was going to help him and the team win games. Sometimes it was unique. He really pushed the boundaries of training and the way he approached the game. That showed a lot of strength and confidence in himself and belief. Stuff like that matters.
As a young player, it made me think about the importance of having great leaders in the room.
Mats Sundin, captain of the Swedish national team
We had a lot of stars on the 2006 Swedish team, including Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidström, Henrik Zetterberg and Peter Forsberg.
But with Mats, there was just something about his energy. When he walked into a room, I could feel it. When he spoke, everybody listened. There was just so much respect for him.
He was the ultimate leader. It always just felt like he knew when to speak and what to say, and that definitely helps in pressure situations.
We won the Olympic gold medal in 2006, and for Team Sweden, the tradition when you win is for the team to go back and celebrate with the fans. Either the NHL or the Swedish Federation said we wouldn’t have time to do that. We had to fly back to the States because the NHL started in a few days.
And Mats just said, “We’ll charter our own plane then. We’re going to Stockholm to celebrate with our fans.”
I don’t know who he convinced, but we did fly back, and it was a memory none of us will ever forget.
It was like: That’s our captain right there.
Martin St. Louis, New York Rangers forward
At that point in my career, I was way more experienced and had more of a leadership role.
That was a time as a team and an organization when we felt we had this window to win. We had a really good team, and so we traded for Marty in 2014.
There was humility with Marty, but there was also a lot of fire. You could see it in his eyes. I loved that passion that he had. He was very vocal in the room, and he was a great speaker.
Any great leader has to know people. They have to read people.
The way he spoke in the locker room just brought a lot of confidence to the group. That run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 was very special. He lost his mom in the series against Pittsburgh. Then he came back and scored on Mother’s Day.
There was so much happening during that run, and I felt like the way he approached the team and the way he tried to win was something that I really appreciated as a teammate.
There were a lot of times when he spoke in the locker room before or after games when we weren’t in the right place mentally. He just said the right things — he was comforting, supportive and positive.
I’m not surprised that he’s doing well as the head coach in Montreal. Not one bit.
— As told to Jayson Jenks