ANderson had like 800k before that contract, was as good as howard, recieved 3M, now howard wanna go from 2.25 to 5!? and he's far from as good as anderson
Could make a longer list
Pre-ms Harding
Jonathan Bernier
Martin Biron
Tomas Vokoun
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anders Lindbäck
etc
This is completely unfair comparison.
Anderson has only has 2 good seasons, interrupted by a bad one. He will get a BIG raise soon.
Same with harding, and Bernier.
Biron is a back up.
Vokoun took less to join a contender, and then didn't play well enough to earn his big money again.
Bobrovsky is playing well, but was generally not very good in Philly.
Lindback is currently viewed as a failure in TB, as many still think they are looking for goaltending.
Alot of those names are also 24-25 just like howard
Bernier will get his raise once he becomes a starter,... but he has not yet started so wont make big money.
Jimmy has been starting for 3 years.
These are not fair comparisons.
I know we would love to pay our goalie less. But...
5 Million is ok, MOre than 5 is too much.
4-4.5 and we are all ok with it right?
Well welcome to the world of keeping players. Imagine if we have Getzlaf for 8.25 mil a year... Actually imagine Datsyuk asks for 8.25 mil a year. Are you happy about it? NO
Will we pay it if he demands it... likely we will.
We honestly just can't let Jimmy walk.
He will not make 6Mil+ (That we know for sure).
He will make less, but we need him. So it will get done.
I would love it if we could get Jimmy for 3.5-4. But he will cost more than that.
Filppula demanding 5Mil+ is much more of a problem. He is going to price himself out of detroit. Right when we need him the most. Very very interesting if we let him walk. We really shouldn't.
But in a Salary cap world. Overpaying a 2nd liner is ok. But if we overpay a 3rd liner... it will really cost us. What is Filppula?