The Habs have locked up their backup goaltending situation for a little while longer as the team announced Monday that they have signed Al Montoya to a two year contract extension. The deal will carry a cap hit of $1.0625 million.
Montoya is in his first season with the Habs after signing with the team back on July 1st as an unrestricted free agent. He’s playing on a cap hit of $950,000 this season so the new deal represents a slight raise; it won’t affect his cap hit this season either.
In 11 games with Montreal this season, the 31 year old has a 4-4-2 record with a 2.74 GAA and a .909 SV% to go along with one shutout. While those numbers aren’t the greatest, he was in for all ten goals against Columbus earlier this season which skews the numbers somewhat.
In his career between the Coyotes, Islanders, Jets, Panthers, and Canadiens, Montoya has a 59-44-20 record with a 2.61 GAA, a .909 SV%, and six shutouts.
The deal also satisfies one of the requirements for the upcoming Las Vegas expansion draft. Each team must expose at least one goaltender and before this signing, Montreal didn’t have any players eligible to be exposed (Carey Price has a no-move clause). The penalty for not meeting the requirements is reportedly either a first round pick or lose a second player with Las Vegas having the option so this was something that needed to be done sooner rather than later.