Pierre Dorion is slowly crossing items off of his summer To Do list.
Today, the Senators announced they have signed goaltender Anders Nilsson to a two year deal worth $2.6 million per season. He’ll earn $2.8M next year and $2.4M the year after.
Here’s a quote from Dorion on the signing.
“We’re very happy to have Anders back for two more seasons. He is a competitive, talented veteran who played very well after being acquired last season. In addition, Anders is a great teammate and hard worker, which makes him an excellent fit with our growing team. This signing provides us with stability at the goaltending position, which is very important to our success as our team continues to develop.”
Nilsson was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks last season and performed admirably under pretty difficult circumstances. He had an 11-11-0 record along with a .914 sv% and a 2.90 goals against average.
It’s going to be interesting to see what this means for the goaltending spot moving forward. Mike Condon missed most of last season but is still under contract for another year.
This seems like a pretty good indication they aren’t expecting him back.
Craig Anderson also has just one year left on his deal. His name has been in the rumour mill off and on over the last couple seasons but that talk seemed to quiet down. And then they have Marcus Hogberg (currently an RFA), Filip Gustavsson and Joey Daccord all battling it out for a spot on the Belleville roster.
As we’ve seen often over the last few seasons, it’s important to have options in net.
Signing Nilsson gives the Senators some flexibility for the next couple years.
