Minnesota re-signed RFA backup goalie Josh Harding to a 1-year $1.2M contract today. Goaltenders just keep getting cheaper and cheaper – Harding had the best numbers among goaltenders looking for a new contract this offseason. In fact, he has some of the best recent numbers in the league. Period.
Here's the bottom line: it's nearly impossible to evaluate goaltenders correctly in a small number of games. So there are lots of goaltenders floating around out there who are just as good as the starters for 20-25 teams. Long-term contracts and high salaries just don't make a whole lot of sense when there's oversupply. We should expect to see depressed goaltender salaries for quite a while as teams punt guys who aren't worth the money.
