Sergei Bobrovsky represents the only viable unrestricted starting free-agent goalie on the market. In a sense, he is going to receive inflated offers because of this fact alone. There is one mitigating factor and that is the Florida Panthers “package deal”. Does Bobrovsky take a discount or does he even go somewhere else?
The problem is that no one truly knows what the soon to be 31-year old goaltender will do. He wants a long-term deal and seems content on focusing there. The appeal of a shorter-term contract is minimal at best. Let’s peek into that contract year.
Sergei Bobrovsky contract year for the Columbus Blue Jackets
The season started poorly for Bobrovsky. There were even times where his starting job was in jeopardy. Ultimately, the goaltender persevered and came up with a clutch series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was mostly very good against Boston but the Columbus Blue Jackets ran out of gas.
Goaltending becomes a different animal when examining categories. It is so much more than wins, goals-against average, and save percentage. Sergei Bobrovsky enjoyed the first solid playoff run of his career — going 6-4 with a 2.41 GAA and .925 save percentage. It was also his first positive goals saved above average (2.84) of his playoff career.
What could Sergei Bobrovsky do on a team with more potential talent? That becomes the burning question. On the other hand, the focus lies in the now and future. Bobrovsky over the past three seasons has been mostly very good to an elite goaltender.
Towards the end of the 2018-19 campaign, we saw the Bobrovsky of the previous two seasons much more. Maybe, he was injured a bit.
Sergei Bobrovsky remains athletic enough and able to make the amazing stops as well as the routine ones. The only previous question had been his playoff implosions. With that concern vanquished, the next questions are where does he go and how much does he get paid?
Now, the even more fun part is trying to get what that term could be. It is a tough thing to gauge as it depends on who really is in on his services.
Again, the numbers from Corsica Hockey support the contention that Bobrovsky is a goalie who could get paid a lot of money. If one goes back to his 2017-18 and 2016-17 campaigns, Bobrovsky ranks easily one of the top three or four goalies in the league. He tallied a .938 save percentage at 5-on-5 during those two seasons. After all, he won another Vezina Trophy in that time as well.
What a new contract for Sergei Bobrovsky could look like
CapFriendly shows that Bobrovsky made $7.425 million AAV over the last four seasons and provided exceeded value in at least three of those — including this year’s playoff run.
Just the fact that Bobrovsky endured most of a season where his abilities in doubt bode well. Why? It remains a testament to his fortitude that the Russian goaltender bounced back and won a playoff round. Though his age will be an issue to some, it will not be to certain teams — especially ones desperate to win.
While the Islanders have been enamored with the idea of Sergei Bobrovsky, there are the Florida Panthers in on his services as well. Other teams inquired about Bobrovsky but it does not seem they got much past the talking phase.
A few suggestions would be a slightly lesser term and a bit more dollars. Would a five year, $45 million dollar deal suffice or a four-year, $36 million dollar contract? At the least, these would be great starting points. Would Sergei Bobrovsky take less to play with Artemi Panarin, or vice versa?
Longer termed deals include the possibility of a $10 million AAV on the table at least. The salary would go down in those later seasons but the cap hit would be the same.
Bobrovsky stops pucks well and his age matters little right now. It only matters as the time of the contract elapses. Wherever the goalie goes, he will be ready to live up to the high expectations that come with the salary. And now, we wait until Monday.