Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Los Angeles Kings sign G Jonathan Bernier to two-year, $2.5M extension

Los Angeles Kings v Phoenix Coyotes

of the Los Angeles Kings of the Phoenix Coyotes during the preseason NHL game at Jobing.com Arena on September 23, 2010 in Glendale, Arizona.

Christian Petersen

In a move that reminds me of the Washington Capitals signing their young backup goalie Michal Neuvirth, the Los Angeles Kings signed their former first round pick/backup Jonathan Bernier to a two-year extension today.

Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times broke the news and also has the details of the deal.

Kings goaltender Jonathan Bernier has had a good few days.

On Sunday he was told he had won the backup job behind Jonathan Quick this season.

Then on Monday he agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $2.5 million. He will earn $975,000 in the 2011-12 season and $1.525 million in 2012-13. The average annual value for salary cap hit calculation is $1.25 million.

Bernier is starting the final year of his entry-level deal, which will pay him $765,000 and carries a salary cap hit of $843,333.

With this new deal, the Kings have both of their goalies wrapped up until after the 2012-13 season. After Bernier’s entry-level deal expires this season, the two goalies will take up a combined $3 million of the Kings’ salary cap for each of the 2011-12 and 12-13 seasons. Both goalies deals expire in July 2013, so the two Jonathans will have a three-year window to prove their merit as Los Angeles’s netminder tandem thanks to this deal.

Considering the league’s growing trend of spending less money on goalies, the Kings will spend less money on both goalies than most teams will invest in a single goalie. We’ll see if GM Dean Lombardi gets more than he pays for, though.