Lyle Richardson passes along an interesting potential development: Elliotte Friedman reports that Winnipeg Jets goalie - and restricted free agent - Ondrej Pavelec might be in talks with a KHL team. Friedman hints at a potential “one-year, big money offer.”
While the specifics aren’t clear just yet, it makes some sense that the 24-year-old goalie may consider going overseas. Sure, there’s a chance that Pavelec could be a wild card in a thin netminding market, yet his RFA status and up-and-down results indicate that he might not garner a particularly lucrative offer in the NHL.
The Jets might end up being the NHL team that would want him the most, anyway, but it’s reasonable to think that a KHL team could theoretically muster a heftier offer. Pavelec might view it as an opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds, even; he could theoretically garner bigger money in the short-term in the KHL before returning to a higher level of competition once he’s that much closer to the unrestricted age of 27.
Stay tuned for more on an intriguing possibility for an under-the-radar goalie.