It took a full month longer than anyone anticipated but the Habs on Monday
wrapped up the last of their restricted free agents, inking goalie Dustin
Tokarski to a one year, two-way contract. He will earn $575,000 in the NHL and $85,000 in the minors. Tokarski joined Montreal back in February from Tampa Bay in
a swap of AHL starting goalies that saw Cedrick Desjardins get dealt to the
Lightning.
Last season with the Bulldogs, the Humboldt, Saskatchewan native played in 15
games, posting a 6-8-0 record with a trio of shutouts. Although the record
doesn’t show it, Tokarski was spectacular most nights for Hamilton, compiling a
2.22 GAA and a .927 SV%. Adding in his numbers with Syracuse (Tampa’s AHL
affiliate), he had a 24-16-4 record (six shutouts) on the year with a 2.38 GAA
and a .909 SV%. He has 214 career AHL games, nearly twice as many as the
rest of Hamilton’s goalie depth combined.
The soon-to-be 24 year old netminder will be required to pass through waivers
in order to rejoin the Bulldogs for the upcoming season. Presuming he
clears, he will likely battle with Robert Mayer (who also must clear waivers)
for the starters job. Despite the vast difference in their levels of
success, I wouldn’t be surprised to see close to a 50-50 split of games in the
upcoming season, especially with the organization having committed two years to
Mayer earlier in the offseason. Mike Condon, who finished last year as the
starter in Houston (Minnesota’s AHL affiliate) by default – everyone else was hurt
or up with the big club – and Peter Delmas will now likely be relegated to vying
for the top job with Wheeling of the ECHL.
The contract now gives the Habs 48 players under contract out of the limit of
50. However, four of those players are junior aged (Bozon, Collberg, Hudon,
and McCarron) and won’t count against the limit this season unless they play in
at least ten games with the big club this season. As a result, there is
still some room under the limit to add some players heading into training camp
next month.
Career Stats
