According to a report by the Toronto Star’s Chris Johnston (subscription required), goaltender Jaroslav Halak is on the market and the backup is available for trade, effective immediately. With two performance bonuses tied to the one-year contract he signed, the Canucks are looking to move his contract before having to pay those bonuses out.
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Halak will be owed $1.25 million if he plays in 10 games for the Canucks this season, plus he’ll earn an additional $250K if he finishes the year with a better-than .905 save percentage. The issue isn’t so much about the Canucks being worried about the financial hit the organization would take, but more the fact that bonuses would count towards the team’s salary cap for next season. His cap hit this year is only $1.5 million and the Canucks would prefer not to carry any money over from this season to next.
So far this season, Halak has appeared in eight games, so he’s yet to unlock the first bonus. But, if he doesn’t play again, his current .915 save percentage would unlock the second bonus.
Halak has a full no-move clause and it doesn’t sound like the goaltender is interested in moving teams. If he doesn’t change his mind, the Canucks don’t have much they can do about the situation. If the Canucks can’t make the deal, it’s not the end of the world as the team has Robert Luongo’s recapture salary coming off of the books.
A Very Odd Situation in Vancouver
It seems like an odd contract to have been signed at the time the deal was done. A no-move for a backup who only needed to play in 10 games to reach his first bonus almost guaranteed that Halak was going to achieve the bonus. And, that the Canucks have placed an importance on moving him, knowing that he could become important should Thatcher Demko suffer any kind of injury seems like a strange waste of energy.
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