TORONTO — Jonathan Bernier is returning to the Toronto Maple Leafs crease for two more seasons and he’ll arrive back there with plenty of motivation.
The team used all of its available leverage in negotiations this summer and, in doing so, left the goaltender with a chance to return to the favour next time around. Bernier agreed to an $8.3-million, two-year deal on Sunday, just hours before an arbitrator was set to deliver an award for a one-year contract.
Ultimately, Bernier took the security of a longer deal over having a chance to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
That will now come in 2017, just before he turns 29 years old, and Bernier will look to position himself for a bigger payday at that point in time.
The Leafs have exercised an incredible amount of financial restraint in recent months and Bernier felt the brunt of it. First, Toronto filed for team-elected salary arbitration in June and then it offered the minimum amount allowable in its brief.
Even after going through an arbitration hearing on Friday — a process that tends to be uncomfortable for both parties — the Leafs held firm in their contract offer to Bernier.
The sides are also believed to have discussed a three-year extension earlier in the summer that would have fallen in the range of Steve Mason’s $12.3-million deal with the Philadelphia Flyers. They ended up settling on an AAV a shade above that contract — $4.15-million — at one year less.
As a result, Bernier will carry the 24th-highest cap hit among NHL goalies next season.
The 26-year-old posted above-average numbers for the first 18 months of his Leafs tenure before seeing them crater along with those of his teammates during a disastrous second half to last season.
Bernier had a .922 save percentage and 41-28-10 record during 83 appearances under former coach Randy Carlyle, before slipping to .905 and 6-19-4 in 30 games after Peter Horachek took over in January.
Now Mike Babcock is on the job and one of his most important tasks will be getting the team to play more responsibly in the defensive zone.
Should that happen, Bernier will be well-positioned to rebound.
At the end of the season, he told reporters that he hoped to receive a long-term deal but it wasn’t in the cards with the organization in transition. The only players the Leafs have signed longer than two years this summer are Mitch Marner and Travis Dermott — two June draft picks on entry-level contracts who will almost certainly be back in junior next year.
However, unlike teammate Nazem Kadri’s recent signing, this shouldn’t be viewed as a “show-me” contract for Bernier.
Since unrestricted free agency beckons at the end of it, both sides will have something to show each other over the next two years. And by the time this deal expires, the leverage should have shifted to Bernier, especially if he performs as well as he’s shown he’s capable of in the past.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to form one of the most affordable goaltending tandems in the league with James Reimer, who is set to earn $2-million in the final year of his deal.