Henrik Lundvist shows Roberto Luongo some love following his retirement

BarDown Staff

Roberto Luongo , Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images

Roberto Luongo caught a bunch of people by surprise on Wednesday afternoon as the 6-time NHL All-Star officially called it a career after 19 seasons, and he made the announcement in true Roberto Luongo fashion.

#RobertoLuongo had some fun with his retirement announcement 😂😂

A post shared by TSN (@tsn_official) on Jun 26, 2019 at 11:25am PDT

It didn’t take very long for congratulatory messages to come in from fans and players around the league, but one of the cooler messages came from fellow goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

Remember watching you play back in early 2000 when I was still playing in Sweden. You inspired me!
It’s been fun battling against you for the past 14 years. Congrats on an amazing career and all the best to you and your family! https://t.co/Yrh0UaZMNv
— Henrik Lundqvist (@HLundqvist30) June 26, 2019

Luongo is only three years older than Lundqvist, but he already had five seasons and 266 NHL games under his belt by the time Lundqvist made his debut with the New York Rangers in the 2005-06 season.

Roberto Luongo had a lot to say in an open letter announcing his retirement to fans 👏👏

A post shared by TSN (@tsn_official) on Jun 26, 2019 at 2:33pm PDT

The Montreal, Quebec native is just one of three goalies in NHL history to play 1,000 games or more as he sits second all-time with 1,044 games. He also sits third on the all-time wins list with 489 victories, and finished with a 2.52 career goals against average and a .919 save percentage; second behind Dominik Hasek for best career save percentage out of all the goalies who played 735 career games or more.

(H/T Twitter/HLundqvist30)