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Red Wings sign Jimmy Howard to one-year extension

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As the regular season winds down, the Bruins look poised for a deep playoff run. Can the Golden Knights also make another Stanley Cup Final appearance?

The Detroit Red Wings are prepared to enter the 2019-20 NHL season with the exact same goaltending duo they have this season after the team announced on Wednesday that it has signed starting goalie Jimmy Howard to a one-year contract extension.

Financial terms of the deal were not released by the team, but according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, it could be worth upwards of $5.1M, with $1.1M of it available through playoff bonuses should the Red Wings qualify next spring.

The 35-year-old goalie said on Tuesday, via NHL.com, that he is perfectly willing to keep signing one-year contracts after this season because the Red Wings have treated him so well throughout his career and he does not want to do anything to hurt their chances to build a team. The Red Wings are the only team Howard has played for during his career after they selected him in the second round of the 2003 NHL draft. He has been their No. 1 goalie since the 2009-10 season and pretty consistently been a league average, to slightly above league average goalie.

The 2018-19 season has been a tale of two seasons for Howard as he started off with what looked to be one of the best performances of his career, especially when you consider he has been playing behind a rebuilding team that is currently one of the league’s worst.

But his production started to regress a bit throughout January and February and currently has him sitting with a .908 save percentage in 44 appearances.

With Howard’s deal now officially signed, the Red Wings’ goalie situation is totally set for next season as Jonathan Bernier will still be signed for two more seasons at a salary cap hit of $3 million. Howard’s new deal, however, does not include a no-trade clause, allowing the team to move him for the right deal.

The fact the Red Wings, a team that is supposedly rebuilding and looking toward the future, are prepared to enter another season with two goalies over the age of 30 that will eat up more than $7 million in salary cap space is a testament to just how thin they are at the position throughout the organization. At some point they are going to have to find a younger, long-term solution because neither goalie they have now will be a part of the next contending team in Detroit.

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.