With Lehner signed, Senators turn their attention to a contract extension for Craig Anderson
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The Ottawa Senators are clearly quite happy with the quality of their goaltending.
On the heels of signing their "goalie of the future" Robin Lehner to a three-year contract last week, the Senators are shifting their focus to a contract extension for veteran puck-stopper Craig Anderson.
From the Ottawa Sun:
Speaking in a conference call after signing Lehner to a deal that will pay him an average of $2.275 million per-season, assistant GM Pierre Dorion confirmed he’ll now work on Anderson.
Though GM Bryan Murray is battling cancer he’s running the show and instructed Dorion to hold talks with Anderson’s Chicago-based agent Justin Duberman to see what he’s thinking.
“I did talk to (Duberman) a few weeks back and said we’d like to get Robin Lehner done first and then we could talk about an extension,” said Dorion.
Anderson followed up lights-out goaltending during the lockout-shortened 2013 campaign with a disappointing season in 2013-14. The veteran puck-stopper managed a below average .911 save percentage in 53 appearances and was outperformed by his backup.
Though Anderson's total save percentage wasn't particularly good last season, his even-strength save percentage was a solid .925, which is just a shade below his .926 percent even-strength total over the past three years.
The 33-year-old American-born goaltender is due $3.5 million in actual salary in the last year of his current four-year contract, which carries a cap-hit of $3.1875 million and expires following this season, according to capgeek.com. So long as Anderson's performance rebounds this upcoming season, he's likely to see his salary increase for the 2015-16 season based solely on where the goaltending market has gone over the past few years.
A persistently undervalued starter, Anderson has demonstrated an ability to stop a well above average rate of pucks. Over the past three seasons, Anderson's even-strength save percentage compares favorably to the likes of Jonathan Quick, Kari Lehtonen, Ryan Miller, Ben Scrivens and Corey Crawford.
Considering the money those netminders are making, a figure in excess of $4 million per season would seem a likely starting point in contract talks between the Senators and Anderson.
[H/T Pro Hockey Talk]