How long is the career of a goaltender, even the 'elite'?
Ken Dryden`s entire NHL career was 8 years. Any goaltenders among the best after 35 seem rare.
In the history of the league, I believe there have only been a handful of goaltenders with 20ish year careers.
This was a high risk contract to me so I will be interested when the next team makes that type of commitment to any goaltender, especially a 30ish year old.
Dryden retired after winning a cup it's not like he was washed up. That was totally his decision. And you can't compare the 70s to today, the conditioning is totally different.
The fact is that Price and Lundqvist are exceptionally good goalies. They are franchise players and you're going to have to pay for that. You can't just let the guy walk.
As much as we would've liked to have had a sweeter contract on our side, it doesn't work that way. Superstars esp are pressed to go for as much as they can because they're the ones who raise the salaries for other players. They can't take sweetheart deals because it takes away the ladder for others.
And as I've said before 10 million seems like a lot now. It won't be that big eight years from now. The cap's already jumped four million since he signed his deal.