Habs make Budaj their man to backup Price
by Kevin van Steendelaar on Jul 1, 2011 3:16 PM EDT
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We now know who will back up Carey Price for the next two seasons. With the free agent market well on it's way, the Montreal Canadiens signed Peter Budaj to a two-year, $2.3 million deal.
Budaj, who will be 29 when the Canadiens start the 2011-12 season, has played all six of his NHL seasons with the Colorado Avalanche.
A native of Slovakia, he played his Junior hockey with the Toronto-St. Michael's Majors before being drafted by the Avs in the second round of the 2001 Entry Draft.
Budaj has a career record of 101-91-27, with a GAA of 2.83. Last season he appeared in 45 games for Colorado, He'll see far fewer playing behind Price. His predecessor, Alex Auld, made 16 appearances in 2010-11.
Mile High Hockey looks at Budaj's last season in the Rocky Mountains.
Elsewhere, James Wisniewski set the pace, signing a 5-year $33 million dollar deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets just before the noon deadline. The Habs top goalie with the Hamilton Bulldogs, Curtis Sanford, has also signed with the BJs.
Jeff Halpern returns for another stint with the Washington Capitals after signing a 1-year, $825,000 deal. He'll be joining Roman Hamrlik, who got his two-year deal by signing with the Caps for $7 million.
Benoit Pouliot went to the Bruins for $1.1 mil. Perhaps he'll find a rejuvenation in Beantown much like Michael Ryder did. The latter is now the Dallas Stars at $7 million over two years.
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Man, I had a slightly funny article about us signing a new generic backup goalie just about ready to post.
Fun fact: he had a higher EV SV% than Anderson did in Colorado last year.
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Actually, ever since the lockout, he always had the best EV sv% on his team.
I’m an ignoramus when it comes to goalies, but this guy doesn’t look like a bad bet.
He had a lot of trouble in Colorado when he was kind of forced into the starter role by inept goaltending from his partner, but as a backup who’s playing 20-25 games max I think he’ll be much more capable than Auld.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Jul 1, 2011 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions
What I said to Olivier. Colorado’s been my second team since the Roy trade.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Jul 1, 2011 8:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Great. Shouldn’t expect for more than that. Shouldn’t need more than that. If Price sucks their boned anyway, just need a guy to spot him.
Colorado has had an incompetant defense for a while so I take his sav. with a grain of salt.
by Stephan Cooper on Jul 1, 2011 8:53 PM EDT up reply actions
I agree. When your best ES defenseman is Ryan O’Byrne… I mean I like O’Byrne but he’s not great.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Jul 2, 2011 3:35 PM EDT up reply actions
Why
did we not want Auld back. One of, if not the best backup in the NHL. Did he feel like he’d get more starts elsewhere?
Also, I’m with Stephan. Not too worried about it though, I think he’ll be a more than serviceable backup, especially with a better team in front of him and less starts than he had in Colorado. He posts a better save %, it seems, when playing a dedicated back-up role instead of playing as many games as he did last season.
One of, if not the best backup in the NHL? You must really confuse Auld with Schneider, Ellis, Johnson or Bernier. Auld is average, so is Budaj but Budaj is at least used to play more games.
You forgot Tuukka Rask, who was easily the best backup in the NHL in spite of his tough season.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Jul 1, 2011 8:18 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t consider Schneids, Bernier or Rask to really be backups, though. I’m more referring to dedicated backups as opposed to guys that guy stuck there while waiting to assume the Number one role. All three of those guys will be incredible starters one day. There are some goalies that are pretty much destined to play career backup.
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