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.
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.