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Around SBN: Which Players Will Join The 3,000-Hit Club?

Peter Budaj Re-Signs


It's been mentioned in the McCormick thread, but now that there's a Denver Post link we can give it it's own thread. Peter Budaj has been re-signed by the Avalanche to a 1-year, $1.25 million deal. It's worth noting that Budaj is 26, meaning he'll become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

I like the deal (shockimg, I'm sure). A couple of months ago, I penciled him in at $1.4 million. I know there are folks who think this is too much, but that's really not a bad deal for a guy averaging 45 games and 20 wins a season. The deal places him 27th on the salary list for goalies, between Jonas Hiller and Johan Hedberg. I think that's just about right. If Budaj finally has that big year, he gets a big raise as a UFA next summer. If he doesn't, the Avalanche can cut bait and really haven't lost out on much - it's not like they have a lot of better options in the pipeline at the moment.

In the same DP article, Dater confirms what we've all assumed: Andrew Raycroft will not be back with the Avalanche next year.

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WOOOOOOOOO

Budaj!!!!! Woooooo hooooooooo no Raycroft!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve had a bad day so please excuse the caps and exclamation points. This has been the highlight of my day.

An ounce of confidence can carry you a mile toward winning. Oh, and Red Wings suck.

by texacogirl on Jun 29, 2009 7:48 PM MDT reply actions  

yikes, that must be a bad one.

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jun 29, 2009 7:54 PM MDT up reply actions  

Does that make the Monster signing more or less possible? I have no idea but I’m going with more because he knows there’s no pressure behind him. Err, right?

by Dario on Jun 29, 2009 7:59 PM MDT reply actions  

I don’t know, but I have to agree with Dater on this one. People are making way too much out of Gustavsson.

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jun 29, 2009 8:04 PM MDT up reply actions  

Yay!

This is real great news to me. I know the team had a bad season, but Budaj is great especially when he gets hot.

Good job on the blog and twitter. Keep up the hard work!

Go Budaj!

by trewaters on Jun 29, 2009 8:49 PM MDT reply actions  

Josh Harding

was given a qualifying offer from Minnesota. Looks like we won’t sign him.

by Avalanche318 on Jun 29, 2009 9:34 PM MDT reply actions  

That really means nothing, in fact I think that makes it more likely he’ll be traded.

Harding wants a role as a starter, and to make money. I bet he’s going to arbitration, with the idea that if he doesn’t get traded he can become an FA next season.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 29, 2009 9:39 PM MDT up reply actions  

Jesus H Christ

What a waste of money.

He’s UFA next season? Who cares? Don’t qualify him this season and he can be a UFA now! How many seasons are we gonna waste on this guy? He can’t cut it. FACT. Everyone bitching about Lappy leaving can simmer on this for a while: With the extra mone we’re spending on Budaj, we could have brought a minor league goalie up and signed Lappy.

Budaj sucks.

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 29, 2009 10:43 PM MDT reply actions  

He’ll be a better back-up than any minor leaguer we could possibly call up.

by Rather Dashing on Jun 29, 2009 10:52 PM MDT up reply actions  

How do we know? We don’t, since we never give them a shot. Save 700k for the rest of the roster. Why give him a raise? WHY?!!? Even if you were to sign Budaj again, why overpay?

SHERMAN
Well, you sucked last year.

BUDAJ
Yeah. But at least my qualifying offer is only 840k.

SHERMAN
How ’bout a raise?

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 29, 2009 10:54 PM MDT up reply actions  

Umm

Who would we call up? Baschichua? Budaj has proven himself to be NHL backup caliber. He’s the cheapest best backup option the Avs have at this point.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 29, 2009 10:59 PM MDT up reply actions  

Qualifying Offers

I’m not sure on the exact rule, but I do know that qualifying offers have to be a raise over the previous year’s contract in order to be valid. I’m not sure what the percentage is, though.

"Horton is win."
--Horvil Tiki

by wtnelson on Jun 29, 2009 11:20 PM MDT up reply actions  

Do you really think the Avs don’t compare their goalies all year around?

Even my junior football team used to do that!

by Tommelot on Jun 30, 2009 4:57 AM MDT up reply actions  

I can only assume he means call up one of the Monsters instead of Boods yet that still makes no sense. Budaj is a great back up goalie, can be relied upon to play as a starter for short periods of time and from everything I’ve read and heard seems to have a great attitude, which is important for a back up goalie.

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jun 30, 2009 5:14 AM MDT up reply actions  

No, it makes no sense to give him an unjustified raise. Qualifying offers are 110% of the previous year’s salary. Basically we just gave Budaj a 148% raise.

That’s just wasting money when we’re already tight against the cap.

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 30, 2009 2:23 PM MDT up reply actions  

Except he doesn’t have to accept the qualifying offer, and he can go to arbitration, the same arbitration that got Svatos $2M+/year for 2 years. Budaj likely would have gotten more in arbitration, especially when you compare his work over the last 3 years with those of his peers.

That $400k extra is less than 1% of the salary cap. Let’s save our anger for something that really deserves it.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 30, 2009 2:28 PM MDT up reply actions  

Then let him walk. Even better.

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 30, 2009 3:19 PM MDT up reply actions  

Seriously

How is that better? Please find a decent backup for cheaper than Budaj will be this season.

Garon is the only one I can think of, but i bet he signs for more than $1.25M.

I realize he had a bad year, but it wasn’t so bad that you let a guy with potential walk for free, and besides his season wasn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong, it was bad, but at no point did he look like he didn’t belong in the NHL.

His play last season was the caliber of an NHL backup goalie. He’s getting paid like one, and he’s being cast in that role. I realize it’s kind of chic to blame everything on him and talk like he’s an AHL caliber goalie, but it’s also inaccurate. The guy belongs in the NHL right now in the backup role.

He’s a fine backup.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 30, 2009 3:52 PM MDT up reply actions  

You don't know...

…if he’s going to be backup or not.

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 30, 2009 11:42 PM MDT up reply actions  

Uggghhh

The Avs have absolutly no one behind him. Weiman appears to be gone, I guess Basichua (sp) could conceivably do it, but it appears pretty solid he’s going to be backup, unless the avs really screw up free agency.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jul 1, 2009 12:17 AM MDT up reply actions  

He's good enough to be the backend of a platoon

We might get a pure backup for cheaper, but Budaj is better than that.

by eltharion_doa on Jun 30, 2009 1:45 AM MDT up reply actions  

Whats up with the picture, It seems stupid to point that as the picture when you just announced we re-signed him. Which I’m stoked about, He’s my favourite Avs player and when he’s on his game he’s one of the top goalies. Hopefully he’ll have a decent defense in front of him this year and be able to deliver.

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jun 30, 2009 4:02 AM MDT reply actions  

I agree. That picture is a bad choice. I like Budaj and I’m glad he’s being given another shot. He can be a good backup. I just hope they don’t plan on relying on him to be the #1.

by Mrs @ MHH on Jun 30, 2009 7:34 AM MDT up reply actions  

hey, look at that. I honestly didn’t notice the puck or the caption – just grabbed a picture quick from the stock AP photos we have available to us

Hyphens cause writers more trouble than any other form of punctuation, except perhaps commas.

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Jun 30, 2009 7:57 AM MDT up reply actions  

Perfect picture.

Get used to more of that! And for more money, too!

I don't believe in Peter Budaj.

by BraxtanFILM on Jun 30, 2009 2:20 PM MDT up reply actions  

Dude we get It, you don’t like Boods. You’ve made it painfully clear. Do you have to continually point out that fact. The entire post was about Budaj. if you hate him why keep reading it and posting how bad he is.

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jul 1, 2009 8:03 AM MDT up reply actions  

Also another thing, name one goalie that doesn’t have a photo of them looking at a puck in the back of the net. It happens to every goalie.

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jul 1, 2009 8:08 AM MDT up reply actions  

Yeah, defense sucks, defense sucked, defense sucked…OK I get it.

But outside of a 17 game stretch now THREE years ago, Budaj have proven squat…outside of the fact that he still gives up killer soft goals towards the end of games, still has a terrible 5 hole (though he has improved it in the shootouts)…he still has awful rebound control. And while he is positionally sound, he is incapable of making an acrobatic save when needed the most.

I guess I am fine with him as a back-up, but if we go into the season with him as a number 1 again…this is going to be another long LONG season.

by chiavsfan on Jun 30, 2009 5:27 AM MDT reply actions  

Rebound Control, my favourite argument about how bad a goalie is, ‘he has poor rebound control, he doesn’t deserve to be in the NHL" Want to know another goalie that had piss poor rebound control, and atrocious stick handling, and no, It’s not me,although I do suffer from those problems, It was Patrick Roy, yet for some reason no one said he sucked and didn’t belong because of his rebound control. The defense should be able to help out the goalie by clearing rebounds, which are harder than most people seem to realize to control depending on the angle and where it hits the goalie..

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jul 1, 2009 8:06 AM MDT up reply actions  

which are harder than most people seem to realize to control depending on the angle and where it hits the goalie..

and other pesky things like the laws of physics, especially conservation of momentum, coefficients of friction, etc.

2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Dry Humping Mediocrity

by Mike @ MHH on Jul 1, 2009 1:00 PM MDT up reply actions  

Well yeah, obviously. But I wanted to keep this as Hockey oriented as possible and not confuse people with my awesome science knowledge.

The Savage has spoken. Let it be done

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost

by Savage33 on Jul 2, 2009 2:58 AM MDT up reply actions  

And just quickly…for as much as we bitched about defense last year. The Avs gave up the 9th LEAST shots per game…but were 26th in goal against. You can only blame the D so much before the goalie has to take a share of the blame.

Budajcroft were bad

by chiavsfan on Jun 30, 2009 7:58 AM MDT reply actions  

Eh

We’ve gone through this before, but I think one of the reasons for this is the Avs blocked a lot of shots. Most of those would have been easy high save% shots that would have increased Budaj and Raycrofts save % numbers quite a bit.

The result is that only quality shots get through, which will deflate the goalies save %.

I’m not saying Budaj and Raycrift weren’t bad, but IMO they weren’t the weak link of the team last season. The Offense was miserable all season, and the defense was just as bad. At some point a bad defense and a bad offense are going to make goalies look worse than they really are.

Nevertheless Budaj and Raycroft were both pretty bad last season. the Avs desperately need a FA or a trade to get a #1 goalie. There’s no disagreement on that one.

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 30, 2009 8:10 AM MDT up reply actions  

Budaj's Back

and Cloutier isn’t – that works for me. And yes, the defense DID suck that bad last year. As a back-up he is what you want: great attitude, hard worker, and humble.

We met Craig Anderson at the 24 Hours of Hockey. Really nice guy. The kids got to do shoot-outs against him, with a donation to the Children’s Hospital. It will be interesting to see who the Avs end up with as a starting goalie.

Colorado Avalanche: Please excuse the mess while we are under construction.

by hockeymom on Jun 30, 2009 1:13 PM MDT reply actions  

I thought that was an avs thing. I didn’t realize it was a full hockey players from around the states/Canadia

The 2008-2009 Colorado Avalanche: Slumpbusters

by Jibblescribbits on Jun 30, 2009 2:03 PM MDT up reply actions  

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