Minnesota re-signs Josh Harding

by Hawerchuk on Jul 14, 2010 8:56 PM EDT Comment 6 comments

Minnesota re-signed RFA backup goalie Josh Harding to a 1-year $1.2M contract today. Goaltenders just keep getting cheaper and cheaper - Harding had the best numbers among goaltenders looking for a new contract this offseason. In fact, he has some of the best recent numbers in the league. Period.

Here's the bottom line: it's nearly impossible to evaluate goaltenders correctly in a small number of games. So there are lots of goaltenders floating around out there who are just as good as the starters for 20-25 teams. Long-term contracts and high salaries just don't make a whole lot of sense when there's oversupply. We should expect to see depressed goaltender salaries for quite a while as teams punt guys who aren't worth the money.

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Steal.

I hope he gets traded somewhere at that price with a shot at 40 games or so. Harding has the potential he just hasn’t gotten the minutes to prove/disprove the question marks.

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by Rob Luker on Jul 14, 2010 10:01 PM EDT reply actions

As a Habs fan that kind of makes me happy – I hope they can get Price at a similar cap hit, even though it’s still doubtful…

by James.P on Jul 15, 2010 8:57 AM EDT reply actions

What is going on with backup goalies??

I think Biron messed it up for everyone this year. If you told me Harding, Ellis, Hedberg were all going to get less then 1.5 million (some less then others) I would of lost money on a bet. You could argue that Harding and Ellis are the better out of the four but Hedberg got the most money out of all of them(Ellis got 1.5 also). On my team website a fan made a post that agents made some dumb moves this offseason, and I disagreed with him at the time but he was right on. Are you telling me that Josh’s agent couldn’t get atleast match Hed’s 1.5? I usually have a pretty good idea what players will get, and I am mostly right but I missed the boat on this crop of goalies. It might be that I am putting to high of value on backup goalies. Last year if Dwayne Roloson can get 5 million over 2 years at FREAKING 39 years old, how can these guys (Ellis Harding) not get paid in the prime of their career? We are not even going to mention what Nikolai Khabibulin got last year and for how long.

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by BL3ACH on Jul 15, 2010 10:07 AM EDT reply actions

Harding is co-operating fully in trying to make a trade happen. He needs out from behind Backstrom, and both sides know that. He has been a good soldier his entire career, always taking the blame off of Backstrom, always taking the low-end deal. Eventually, he will find a home, and he will shine, and he will get his money. Right now, it is all about making it easy to trade him if the right suitor comes calling.

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by BReynolds on Jul 15, 2010 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions