Broad Street Hockey took a very thorough look at all sides of the rumored deal for Nabokov, including the possible cost of a new contract.
I spoke with the guys from Fear The Fin, SBN’s Sharks blog, and they say that they expect Nabokov to get between four and five million on his next contract. He made $6 million last year and he had a cap hit of $5.375 million on his last deal, which he signed in 2006. With his age (he’ll be 35 in July) and with the unattractive nature of this year’s goalie market, the Flyers could perhaps get Nabokov to agree to an incentive-laden deal. Either way, the Flyers would be paying him about the same as they would’ve paid Hamhuis. The FTF guys also said they expect Nabokov to want a two or three year deal.
The Inquirer reported that Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren was seen meeting Nabokov’s agent at the NHL draft last night. One would assume that he was getting an idea of what kind of money the two time all star would be looking for if the Flyers swung a trade for him. If the Flyers pulled trigger on a deal, it would appear they would be more prepared to get a new contract done than they were with Dan Hamhuis.