Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on their 32 Thoughts Podcast – Trippin’ Out In Trenton on the Florida Panthers and their goaltending situation with Spencer Knight after his three-year contract extension last week and Sergei Bobrovsky going forward.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “So, Spencer Knight got a three-year deal worth $4.5 million per year from Florida week and the Panthers took some heat over it I think.
Marek: “For having $14.5 million worth of goaltenders?”
Friedman: “Well, I think it was just the Knight contact specifically.”
Marek: “Because he hasn’t played enough games?”
Friedman: “He hasn’t played a ton. He’s a really talented guy and if you were to tell me he was to play at a level he’s deserved to be paid like that, I don’t think that anybody would be surprised. But it was fast.
Like, if you’re Boston and you’ve got Jeremy Swayman, you’re looking at that and saying, ‘uh oh.’ Like that’s a problem for us.
The thing that is interesting about this one is, so, Sergei Bobrovsky has two years left before his no-trade clause becomes a partial no-trade.”
Marek: “And the actual money really drops.”
Friedman: “And the money drops. After two more seasons, he signed a $70 million contract, $58 million of it will be paid. And that will be after the first year of Spencer Knight’s contract.
So if there is ever a time Florida is going to pay someone to take Bobrovsky off their hands, it’s going to be then. So that is the time to look at this.
The other thing is, that I had heard from another team, that what they told me that they believed that everybody thought Jake Oettinger was going to come in around the $5 million range. So he thinks, this is what this GM told me, he thinks that Florida was negotiating the deal with Oettinger at five. So you got Oettinger at $5 and Knight comes in at $4.5 . And Oettinger came in at $4 , and I think that’s a situation where Oettinger said, ‘I’m not missing time. Get the deal done, I’m not missing time.’
Then what do you do? You’re stuck.”
