The Ottawa Senators have signed goaltender Anton Forsberg to a three-year contract extension worth $8.25 million, the team announced on Monday. It comes with an annual average value of $2.75 million.
Forsberg has a 14-12-2 record in 31 appearances with the Senators this season, along with a .918 save percentage and a 2.77 goals-against average.
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This move comes amidst a busy last 24 hours for the Senators. They traded Nick Paul to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2024 fourth-round pick and Mathieu Joseph on Sunday. Ottowa also acquired defenceman Travis Hamonic from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick that once belonged to Vancouver.
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Senators' Pierre Dorion tries to explain his trade deadline moves, leaving more questions than answers
Why did Senators opt to sign Forsberg rather than trade him?
Ian Mendes, Senators senior writer: Pierre Dorion made it clear earlier this month that his preference was to keep Forsberg beyond the trade deadline. But it felt like maybe a contract negotiation would take place in the offseason. Instead, the Senators locked him up for three years at a fairly reasonable price.
Since the Senators claimed him off waivers 12 months ago, Forsberg has become the most stable presence inside Ottawa’s crease. He’s posted a .916 save percentage in 39 games with the Senators and clearly, management felt like that was enough of a sample size to sign him to a multi-year deal.
What this means for Ottawa's goaltending picture next season
Mendes: This is now a really fascinating question. The only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is that Forsberg will be one of the two goalies for this team on opening night.
A healthy, rejuvenated and motivated Matt Murray would occupy the other spot in an ideal world. But Murray’s future — at least in the short term — is up in the air with an upper-body injury that may sideline him for the rest of the regular season. Murray is owed $15 million in actual cash over the next two seasons, so putting him on long-term injured reserve is an option if he’s not fully healthy to start next season.
If Murray is healthy and back in the picture, the situation around Filip Gustavsson becomes intriguing. The netminder is on a one-way contract for next season and would require waivers to be demoted back to the AHL. At this point, there is still a lot of uncertainty in Ottawa’s crease for next season. And Forsberg is the only one with a guaranteed spot right now.