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Anderson Extended

August 25, 2014, 11:16 AM ET [119 Comments]
Travis Yost
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
On the heels of a quality decision to extend Clarke MacArthur on a five-year deal, the Ottawa Senators vowed to continue pushing other pending free agents into contract extensions.

Monday morning brought the announcement of goaltender Craig Anderson's three-year extension, a deal that's set to pay him $4.2MM through the 2017-2018 season. After Robin Lehner's multi-year extension earlier in the month, it seems likely that the team's going to roll with this tandem for the foreseeable future.

As for the extension itself, I'm not sure I understand it. To the extent that the team was looking for an option to hedge against Robin Lehner flaming out or failing to develop, signing any goaltender at a 1A/1B cost makes sense. Though the team likes most everything Lehner brings to the table, I think last year's .913 SV% brought a bit of a scare -- enough that warranted the team to be a bit more aggressive on contract negotiations with Craig Anderson, perhaps.

Even if Lehner hadn't struggled last year, you always want insulation or a back-up plan, especially for a young goaltender. So, to that degree, spending a bit more on a starter that may turn into a back-up in short order makes sense.

But, is Anderson really the guy that's going to insulate Lehner? The Swede kind of had a nightmarish season last year, and he still finished with a better save percentage than Anderson. Of course, there are more voluminous data points that should give you reason to pause about this deal -- specifically, three year projections and goalie aging curves, neither of which are very kind to Craig Anderson's position.

So, $4.2MM AAV isn't going to kill this team on the bottom line, mostly because they have loads of cap space and have for quite some time. But, for a team whose cap ceiling isn't the cap ceiling that other teams are playing with, you kind of wonder if a good chunk of Anderson's $12.6MM could've been spent on upgrading a horrifying defense, the rest of which allocated to a cheaper option.

The biggest hope for the team is that Anderson plays reasonably well for the first couple of seasons and Lehner turns into the goaltender they've forecasted for some time now. If that works, it's money well spent, and the organization should be given credit for their aggressive play. If it doesn't, you can shift Anderson's $4.2MM to Cowen's $3.1MM, Greening's $2.6MM, Phillips' $2.5MM, Neil's $1.9MM, and one of Gryba/Borowiecki's $1.1MM.

Now, attention turns back to Bobby Ryan and Marc Methot..
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