New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault surprised some people recently when he gave two consecutive starts to backup goalie Cam Talbot over All-Star netminder Henrik Lundqvist. With Lundqvist struggling a bit lately, some even went as far as to wonder if there was a goaltending controversy brewing in Gotham.
So much for those thoughts.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported Wednesday morning that the Rangers and Lundqvist have come to terms on a new contract extension. The deal will reportedly be for seven years and an average annual value of $8.5 million. That would make the deal worth a reported $59.5 million over the course of the extension.
Lundqvist, who will turn 32 in March, was set to become a free agent after this season. He’s in the final year of his current six-year, $41 million contract. So it’s safe to say that hockey has made him a pretty wealthy man.
In fact, the contract will make Lundqvist the highest-paid goalie in the NHL. Both Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Boston’s Tuukka Rask recently signed contracts that gave them AAV’s of $7 million. Rinne’s seven-year, $49 million deal was signed in November 2011 while Rask signed an eight-year, $56 million extension this past summer. Rinne and Rask are 31 and 26, respectively.
