Canucks sign Jaroslav Halak to one-year deal

The Vancouver Canucks have found their new back-up goaltender.

Early Wednesday morning, reports starting coming in that the team had finalized a deal with former Boston Bruin goaltender Jaroslav Halak.

As per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, it appeared that the Canucks had signed the 36-year-old veteran to a one-year deal to play behind starter Thatcher Demko. The contract will have a base salary of $1.5 million, with a potential for Halak to receive an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses.

This report was followed up and confirmed by Thomas Drance of The Athletic, who shed more light on the financial structure of the deal.

Halak will only carry a $1.5 million cap hit for the 2021-22 season, which is broken down into a base salary of $750,000, as well as a signing bonus with the same value. Halak will also receive a $1.25 million performance bonus if he can suit up for 10 games. This bonus is essentially a guarantee, given that the league will be returning to their usual 82-game format, and that Demko has yet to take on the starter role in a full season yet.

Halak is also eligible for an additional $250,000 payday if he can maintain a save percentage of .905%.

While this may seem like a large financial burden for the Canucks, especially given their current cap crunch and desperate need to sign other roster positions, it’s actually not too expensive. If the Canucks reach their maximum cap limit, which is very much expected, Halak’s performance bonuses won’t count towards this season. In other words, it will likely be an issue for the 2022-23 campaign.

Halak has spent the last three years in Boston, and is recently coming off a one-year, $3.5 million deal.  His numbers dipped this past season, as indicated by his 2.53 GAA and .905 SV%, but Halak still achieved a winning record. In 19 regular season games, he went 9-7-4, while also posting two shutouts in the process.

During his three-year tenure in Boston, Halak was able to achieve a 2.42 GAA and a .915 SV% overall, to go along with 49 wins and 10 shutouts.

Halak likely won’t be able to massively bounce back from last year’s numbers, especially given Vancouver’s current defensive pairings in front of him, but he should be able to provide 10-15 wins in relief of Demko. Given the tight wild card race that is expected in the Pacific Division, the Canucks will definitely need those victories from Halak if they want to get over the playoff hump.

This signing is tidy work for the Canucks, especially given that their hunt for a back-up netminder started less than 48 hours ago after the team placed Braden Holtby on unconditional waivers for the purposes of a buyout. The Holtby move came a few days after the team did the same with forward Jake Virtanen.

Halak was at the top of many teams’ lists for back-up netminders, including Vancouver’s, making the deal very impressive for General Manager Jim Benning.

Benning was also able to free up $5.9 million in cap space on Tuesday afternoon, trading away blueliner Nate Schmidt to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick.

In total, given both the Holtby and Virtanen buyouts, as well as the Schmidt trade, the Canucks were able to free up $12.2 million against the cap. This number will go a long way, given the team’s need to make a big splash in in both unrestricted and restricted free agency.

There’s a lot of work left to do, but signing Halak was definitely a good start for Benning and co.

What are your thoughts on Halak’s new deal? Let us know in the comments below!