Are goaltenders being disrespected when it comes to compensation?
The goaltending market is taking center stage in the free-agent market. Restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman is still looking to get paid as one of the top-tier goaltenders in the NHL.
While Igor Shesterkin is looking to reset the goalie market, he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season as he enters the final year of his contract with the New York Rangers.
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You see the top forwards and defensemen getting their fair share of the market, but goaltenders still do not, outside of a couple of goalies. That may be changing.
As TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button discussed in the latest episode of Smokehouse, he believes that goaltenders need to get their fair share of the market.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Craig Button: “Jeremy Swayman, one of the NHL best goaltenders, remains unsigned to date. And you ask the question, where is the impasse? But there’s a bigger question to be asked, and that is, are goaltenders being disrespected when it comes to compensation?
Keep this in mind. Carey Price remains the NHL Highest Paid goaltender with respect to AAV at $10.5 million. A contract he signed in 2017. So when you consider the impact of goaltenders, most recently, Sergei Bobrovsky, 82 games regular season and playoffs, 52 wins Stanley Cup. Andrei Vasilevsky, all the brilliance that he had, understanding that he won a Conn Smythe Trophy.
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And it doesn’t make sense that you don’t have your goaltender signed at a much higher rate, because everybody talks about winning the Stanley Cup, and your chances of winning the Stanley Cup, if you don’t have an above average goaltender, at the very least, is zero. And why is there not compensation to match this.
Consider this Conn Smythe Trophy winners. There’s been 59 of them. 17 times a goaltender has won the Conn Smythe Trophy. There is no way that you can look at the goaltending position and not think that they don’t deserve to be highly compensated. It’s going to be interesting to see where Igor Shesterkin gets paid after this coming season, when he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.
I think he’s one of the best five guys in the league. Since the all-star break, there’s been nobody better than Igor Shesterkin.
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But the argument that, oh, they’re not everyday players. Pitchers aren’t everyday players. One out of every five games they play, yes, in the playoffs, that might be one out of four. You don’t have pitching, you don’t have a chance to win. You don’t have goaltending, you don’t have a chance to win.
So when you consider where the goaltenders compensation is overall, and certainly thinking that Carey Price remains the highest paid goaltender, something has to change, because right now, the goaltenders are not being respected for what their value is and their value is significant.
They don’t have to play every game. Certainly we see tandems now for the regular season, but we see one goaltender try to help a team en route to the Stanley Cup. If you don’t have that one goaltender, you’re not winning. Pay the goaltenders.”
It will be interesting to see how these negotiations play out with Swayman and the Bruins, along with Shesterkin and the Rangers.