Blackhawks Extend Goalie to Bridge Deal

Jones was a crucial part in helping the Florida Panthers complete their quest of winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. But in return, they sent the Blackhawks their backup goaltender who with the contract extension, proves he is now the starter in the Windy City.

Knight was on the Panthers for a better part of 3 seasons, 4 if you include this past year right before he was traded and was in the backup goaltender role. He was backing up Sergei Bobrovsky and now is the starter ahead of Arvid Soderblom among others.

Knight is only 24 years old, and seems to have signed a bridge deal. He signed a 3-year deal at an average annual value of about 5.83 million per season. That is a pretty nice deal and seems to be a prove it deal for the young goaltender from Darien, Connecticut.

Hockey fans around the world were absolutely shocked when the Blackhawks received the young upcoming goalie in the trade for their veteran defenseman. They figured that when Jones was in conversations to be traded, that since Jones had a lengthy contract, that they were not going to receive much of value in return for him.

But that was not the case as general manager Kyle Davidson really surprised everybody when he was able to land Knight and get his future starting goaltender in a seller's market at the Trade Deadline. Davidson did masterful work as Blackhawks fans are much more relieved to be watching Knight be their main backstop in Chicago.

And the fact that the Blackhawks have been building their future blueline through the draft the last few seasons, it really bodes well for Knight and his performance if he has some good defenders in front of him. And if Knight really proves himself to the Blackhawks after signing this new deal, he can cash in as a unrestricted free agent when his contract expires and really get the big bucks.