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The Kings and goaltender Cal Petersen have agreed to a three-year contract extension worth $ 15 million, the team said in a press release on Wednesday.
Petersen, who will be 27 when the next campaign starts, started 35 of the Kings’ 56 games last season. He initially alternated appearances with veteran Jonathan Quick, but between Petersen’s performance and a late-season injury at Quick, Petersen got the lion’s share of the work down the home stretch. He posted a 2.89 goals against average and .911 save percentage.
Petersen was often subjected to barrage, playing behind a largely inexperienced group that were lean on defense and struggled to sort out chess as a five-man unit. His high-risk save percentage put him in the league’s top 10 among goalkeepers with 15 or more appearances.
“You can’t really pick which game you’re up against, so I was just trying to stop whatever came my way,” Petersen said after a 2-0 loss to Colorado in which he repelled 44 of the 45 shots he faced.
After last season, Petersen traveled to Riga, Latvia, where he represented the United States at the IIHF World Championships. There, he posted stingy numbers – a .953 save percentage, a 1.29 goals-against average and two shutouts – and led the Americans to bronze while being honored as the tournament’s top goaltender.
Petersen’s existing contract expires at the end of the 2021-22 season, meaning his new contract prevents him from becoming a free agent and keeps him in the fold until 2025.
The $ 5 million cap for Petersen is in line with what other starters who have recently signed will be paid, including Elvis Merzlikins of the Columbus Blue Jackets (five-year-old, $ 27 million) and the Seattle Kraken Philipp acquisition. Grubauer (six years, $ 35.4 million).
During the 2022-23 campaign, barring a trade or redemption, the Kings will have to pay $ 10.8 million in caps between Petersen and Quick. For the coming season, only two teams have as much salary allocated to their goaltenders: the Montreal Canadiens and the Florida Panthers, both of whom have starters who earn $ 10 million or more annually.
Petersen was a fifth-round pick for the Buffalo Sabers in 2013, but the two sides never came to an agreement, opening the door for the Kings to sign him as an unrestricted free agent in 2017. In the meantime, he has played three. years for Notre Dame, helping the Fighting Irish to a Frozen Four appearance and also setting a record for the most saves in an NCAA game with 87 in what was the longest game in college history .
Petersen then spent most of the three seasons with the Kings’ main minor league affiliate Ontario Reign before winning his first NHL starts in 2019 and another series of promising appearances in 2020 following the ‘a trade deadline purge that has opened up a handful of places in the roster. .
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