Leafs Sign Jonathan Bernier To Two-Year Deal

Goaltender and the have agreed to a two-year contract value $eight.three million.

The 26-year-old will count $4.15 million against the salary cap in each of the next two seasons.

It was 85 percent of Bernier’s previous salary ($3.4 million in 2014-15), which is the lowest offer a team can provide in arbitration.

Over the past two seasons (since he became the Leafs starter), filtering out goalies that are below 60 games started, Jonathan Bernier stands tied for 13th in the league in combined save percentage at.918.

Bernier, 26, has posted a goals against average of 2.78 and a. 918 save percentage in two seasons with the Maple Leafs after arriving in a trade with the Kings on June 23, 2013.

The new deal will eat up one year of Bernier’s unrestricted free agency eligibility, but the shorter term on the contract could prove beneficial to both sides.

General Manager Lou Lamoriello was active in the Bernier arbitration since being hired two weeks ago. The team entered the process offering $2.89M to their hopeful starter for the 2015-2016 season (a step back from last year’s contract rather than a pay raise), and Bernier’s camp seemed interested in closer to $5 million – putting the final figures of his new deal closer to what Bernier himself wanted, rather than the team.

This will be the third straight season with Bernier and James Reimer splitting goaltending duties, and Lamoriello implied it’s back to being an open competition. “These are our goaltenders, these are people we believe in, and now we just have to go out there and give every support mechanism to have the success that’s needed”. 916 save percentage. That the Leafs signed two years instead of the one with Bernier would make Reimer being here beyond this season all the more unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

Bernier was originally selected by Los Angeles with the 11th overall pick in the 2006 draft.

“I think I have to prove to my teammates and the organization that I can be the guy that can bring this team into the playoffs and deep in the playoffs, too”, Bernier said. If that does end up happening, the Maple Leafs should be well positioned to give him a longer-term deal at that point.