Brandon Bussi prioritized security over money with extension
The Carolina Hurricanes got a tidy piece of business done during the Olympic break, as they announced on Monday that they have signed goaltender Brandon Bussi to a three-year contract extension.
Bussi, who the Hurricanes claimed off waivers before the start of the season, is a 27-year-old rookie who has a 23-3-1 record in his first 27 NHL appearances. He’s set numerous NHL records for fewest amount of starts to a certain number of wins, and he has a 2.16 goals against average and .908 save percentage.
This contract, which takes him out of this summer’s free agent class, will pay him an average of $1.9 million er year over the course of the deal.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Bussi was motivated to take a deal that strikes many as below his possible market value.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Brandon Bussi’s got a new contract extension with Carolina Hurricanes, Hutts, a three-year deal at a $1.9 million AAV. Considering the year he’s having, I’m honestly kind of surprised that the AAV came in as low as it did. I’m honestly kind of surprised Bussi agreed to sign this when he did. If you would have let this play out, maybe he had some playoff success with the Hurricanes. Like there’s a chance he maybe could have cashed in a little bit more. But Bussi and the Canes agree, I guess stability for a guy like Bussi who was just a journeyman before this season and really hadn’t established himself in the NHL yet. For him to get basically $6 million guaranteed is quite an accomplishment, but what did you make of the Bussi deal with the Canes?
Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think as a guy that’s 27 years old, he’s never had security. That’s probably the main goal here. He’s getting term, he’s getting money spread out. I think maybe they offered him a one or two year deal at a higher number and he holds out. Now barring injury, barring whatever you take the risk out of it, right? You’re taking that deal right now. You don’t know how the second half is going to go. But also that being said, to play devil’s advocate is, you kind of have everything going on right now, right? You’re 23-1-1. You’re 27 years old. There’s still a lot of good runway left, a lot of good legs. The goalie market is weak. And you look at the fact that like Scott Wedgewood just took a team friendly deal as well. So there’s another guy that scratched off that list. Brandon Bussi, you kind of have the world by the cajones here. Like you can go out and you can make a ton of money going to free agency.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…