Breaking: Andrew Hammond Signs Three-Year Extension

Once Pierre Dorion returned from the World Championships in the Czech Republic, it did not take him long to iron out the wrinkles in the contract negotiations with Andrew Hammond.

This morning Hammond agreed to a three-year extension that carries an escalating salary each season. Hammond will earn $1.2 million before earning $1.35 million and $1.5 million in the remaining two years of his deal. The extension carries an average annual value of $1.35 million per season. Although it’s maybe a year longer than I would have liked, especially with another goaltender like Matt O’Connor in the system who may be ready to step in by the conclusion of Hammond’s deal, the financial commitment isn’t offensive.

It’s almost the perfect conclusion to Hammond’s storybook season, but with the NHL Awards still on the horizon, there’s also a great chance Hammond can add the Masterton Trophy to his mantle that is the home of his ‘Free McDonald’s For Life’ card. (As an aside, apparently McDonald’s has not delivered this card to Hammond yet. Not only will they steal his likeness for their re-imagined Hamburglar character, they will cheat him out of free burgers.

With Hammond under wraps for the foreseeable future, the focus shifts to what the Senators will do next with the flexibility at the goaltending position. As exciting as it is to think of the ways the Senators may be able to reinvest the money from the difference in salary between Hammond and one of their two more established goaltenders and parlay one of their goaltenders to address a perceived area of weakness on the roster, it is absolutely frightening to think of what the Senators could do based upon the results of Hammond’s 24 games this season.

What we do know is that Hammond’s numbers will regress. They have to. No goaltender in the world can replicate the unsustainable numbers that Hammond put up over a very short sample size. That’s not a knock on Hammond, it’s just the reality of his numbers being absurdly good. His numbers are going to get worse, it’s just a matter of by how much.

Hammond’s success did help change the perception of him within the organization.

This past January, general manager Bryan Murray was asked about Craig Anderson being the team’s best trade asset.

“Why would I do that at this point? We don’t have a third goaltender. Robin (Lehner) is close to ready, but he’s got to play more games. And I think with Craig being the credible guy that he is, I don’t know that I have to… if you don’t have goaltending in this league, you don’t have anything. We know that. We can’t start and get rid of a guy and not be able to find a guy that can come in and play at that calibre. We know that’s not going to happen, so it’s unlikely that Craig Anderson is going anywhere but the net in Ottawa.”

These remarks were obviously made before Hammond’s string of success, but the point remains: without those numbers, the Senators did not project Hammond as a viable NHL goaltender and had Robin Lehner not suffered a concussion in a collision with Clarke MacArthur, Hammond would never have been retained as an unrestricted free agent.

Perceptions can and are allowed to change.

I’m sure the organization will hit on some points that speak to some kind of change in style, mindset, confidence that helped Hammond move from journeyman status to that of an NHL regular, but it’s hard not to believe that the Senators are simply rewarding Hammond because of this small sample size and/or the sentimentality, marketability and good PR that came with it.

It would have been incredibly easy for the organization to step back and dismiss Hammond as a flash of the pan and roll with their safest goaltending option (Anderson) and the one with the most upside (Lehner) who the goaltender moved Ben Bishop to make room for. They didn’t though. Instead, the Senators will move one of Anderson or Lehner believe Hammond to be an NHL goaltender and they favour whatever kind of return they can get for Anderson or Lehner.

As I’ve written about a few times already this offseason, there are arguments to be made for and against moving each and every goaltender on the roster. Anderson is the oldest and most expensive goaltender, but he also is the most reliable and accomplished of the lot – because of it, he probably possesses the most trade value. For as much attention as Hammond’s run is getting for pushing the Senators into the playoff picture, they don’t get there without Craig Anderson’s first 20 starts either.

Anderson has had some very good seasons, but it’s easy to recognize a pattern in his statistics clearly showing that his numbers suffer as he plays more games in a season. Coupled with his bizarre injuries, management may have grown tired of his injury problems and willingness to play through pain for the benefit of the team.

On the flip side, there was the once heralded goaltender of the future in Robin Lehner. Having already bungled the Ben Bishop trade, the organization can ill afford the backlash of moving away another young goaltender at a time when the trade value is not at its peak. From a historical perspective, when putting his aggregated numbers up against those of his modern peers, Lehner’s peripheral numbers match up. Young goaltenders struggle through their formative years and Lehner’s no different. Now maybe he falls short of fulfilling those lofty expectations put on him as a teenager following the Binghamton Senators’ Calder Cup winning season, but I’d hate to be the guy who traded him if he does.

It’s a weird turn of events, but here we are. Irrespective of how Hammond plays moving forward, he will also be judged as the catalyst that pushed one of the other goaltenders out of town. In a vacuum, fans could evaluate Hammond strictly on whether he can be more than just a journeyman who can provide adequate goaltending in the event that the number one starter goes down, but because of the flexibility he afforded the organization, he will also be judged against the performance of whomever he displaced as well as the trade return for that goaltender. Like not getting your ‘McDonald’s For Life’ card, that’s a pretty shitty deal.

Trade Package

As an aside, what’s going to be really interesting is to see who the Senators target in a trade by packaging one of their goaltenders. Bryan Murray has staunchly supported the idea that this team needs a top six forward and in the past, he was attempted to move Lehner on a few occasions to bring in players like Rick Nash or one of Edmonton’s young forwards. Ideally, a goaltender could be used to address the blue line.

By the Numbers 

Here is a look at the salary structure of the contracts for each of Ottawa’s respective goaltenders over the next few seasons: