Joined: Jul. 2018
Posts: 349
Likes: 246
The Bruins are an aging but excellent team, and the last few seasons having a tandem has really helped them a lot. A one year deal on a guy who has consistently been one of the better backup/1A goalies seems like a great bet. The performance bonus allows them to push that part of the cap hit to another year if needed.
Overally Halak is a 35+ goalie, and he will almost certainly make $3.5M in total against the cap, so I don't think it's an insane steal. Maybe he could have gotten 2 years or maybe pushed it to $4M, but overally I think he took a bit of a gamble on trying to win it with a great team, and that team figured out a way to keep him while paying him relatively fairly, so it seems like a great deal no matter how you slice it.
Boston has some contracts that have aged insanely well that allows them to overspend a little in goal, and given the age of this team, I think a tandem is a great way to capitalize on their current roster. There will almost certainly be several teams next year that have less money committed in goal and will probably get better overall performance, but two good goalies just makes it less likely that a rough year from a goaltender is what sinks them, and when a team's core is getting a little older, you really don't want to write off seasons because of a rough year in goal.
Overall, I think the AAV is fine, performance bonus helps, term is ideal.