The 2019-20 season has officially come to an end with Tampa Bay being crowned as Stanley Cup champions in a six-game victory over Dallas. With that in mind, the offseason festivities have begun with news surrounding several goaltenders highlighting the top stories of the week.
End Of An Era: While it had largely been expected following his diminished role and New York’s cap situation, it was still certainly notable that the Rangers bought out the final year of goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s contract. The 38-year-old had spent the last 15 years with them and is their all-time leader in games played (887), wins (459), and shutouts (64). The move frees up $3MM on the cap for the Rangers for this offseason while adding $1.5MM onto the books for 2021-22. New York is now paying five different players not to play for them next year with their combined cap hit of $12.994MM representing nearly 16% of the 2020-21 salary cap.
Gostisbehere Available: A few years ago, Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere looked like a key part in their future plans as an offensive defenseman on the rise with a team-friendly contract. Things have changed quickly. After spending most of the stretch run and playoffs as a healthy scratch, Philadelphia has made the blueliner available. However, with just a dozen points in 42 games this season and a $4.5MM price tag for three more years in a market where a lot of teams are looking to clear salary room, the list of potential suitors will be a lot smaller than it would have been just a couple of years ago.
Lehner Sticks Around: Despite his public comments saying a five-year, $25MM deal wasn’t done during the playoffs, Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner wound up signing a new contract for that exact amount and term this weekend. The deal gives him some stability after he played on three straight one-year deals and gives Vegas some long-term goaltending security. However, it also further calls into question Marc Andre-Fleury’s future with the team as a $7MM second option on a team that’s currently over the Upper Limit of the cap isn’t ideal. To that end, they appear to be looking to involve a third team to help facilitate a trade which means there’s still some work to be done to finalize their goaltending for 2020-21.
Maatta On The Move: For the second straight offseason, defenseman Olli Maatta has been dealt as he was moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in exchange for center Brad Morrison. The Blackhawks also retained 18.4% of his $4.083MM AAV in the move. Considering that Morrison spent all of this past season in the ECHL, his presence in the deal was simply to match contracts which means that Maatta was effectively a salary dump. Chicago now has some more cap room to try to re-sign Corey Crawford and deal with their restricted free agents while the Kings add a still-young blueliner (Maatta is only 26 despite having played seven NHL seasons already) for a minimal price tag.
Jarry Contract: A year ago, Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry was available in a trade. Now, he’s their goalie moving forward as Pittsburgh signed him to a three-year, $10.5MM contract in a deal that buys out one year of UFA eligibility. The 25-year-old got his first chance at extended NHL action this season and earned himself an All-Star Game appearance along the way while posting a 2.43 GAA and a .921 SV% in 33 games. That further calls into question Matt Murray’s future with the Penguins. The pending restricted free agent is just a year away from UFA eligibility and has been in plenty of trade speculation already although nothing has materialized yet in terms of a trade that GM Jim Rutherford is willing to pull the trigger on.
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