St. Louis Blues: What Will Jordan Binnington’s Contract Look Like

The Stanley Cup has made its way to St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington as the celebration of the Blues historic run continues.

The St. Louis Blues have just over $12 million in cap space remaining and the biggest question remaining for St. Louis this offseason is the contract the Blues will hand Jordan Binnington.

Signing Binnington was always the Blues top priority for the summer. In part, because St. Louis is already limited in what they can do in terms of bringing in players from outside the organization.

Including Binnington, the Blues have five restricted free agents who still need to be signed. With Joel Edmundson likely getting the biggest deal of the four players besides Binnington, the Blues will still have some flexibility for the rookie’s contract.

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No rookie has ever won all 16 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so finding comparable contracts will be few and far between.

There are, however, some benchmarks we can use in determining how much the Blues should pay for Binnington without handcuffing themselves if they want to make a move further down the road.

One thing that Blues fans will always point to when dealing with contracts being handed out to goalies is the contract of Jake Allen. Allen is still owed $4.35 million for the next two seasons and will serve as the backup goalie for the upcoming season.

While Allen never showed the potential that Binnington displayed a year ago, there should not be too many reasons for Blues fans to worry about the dollar amount of Binnington’s new contract.

There are not many examples from around the league of rookie goaltenders winning the Stanley Cup, though there are two goalies that are still in the league that we can use as a starting point.

Cam Ward won the Stanley Cup for the Carolina Hurricanes during the 2005-06 season while in year two of his three-year entry-level deal.

Although Ward did not get an immediate promotion for the following season, he did net a considerable pay raise from the $684,000 he made as a rookie.

Before the 2007-08 season, Ward was awarded a three year, $8 million deal that averaged $2.6 million a year.

Binnington is likely to make a lot more than just $2.6 million with his new contract and Ward’s deal is probably more of an indication of the lower salary cap in the late 2000s than the Hurricanes belief in his ability.

For a more recent contract given out, we do not need to look past the 2016 Stanley Cup. Matt Murray, a rookie, led his team to the first of back to back Stanley Cup championships.

Murray won his Cup in the last year of his three-year entry deal, and like Binnington, was due for a raise. Murray was handed a three-year, $11.25 million deal worth an average of $3.75 million a year.

The Murray deal will be in the neighborhood of Binnington’s new deal. St. Louis would still like to have some cap space remaining for both the remaining RFAs and for some possible moves during the regular season.

St. Louis will have to find the balance between rewarding Binnington for his incredible performance during the season, and still finding a way that it will not kill them down the road.

Binnington looks like the real deal, and there is nothing to suggest that the 26-year-old will falter at all in the coming years. Whatever St. Louis decides to hand the phenom, he will have earned every penny.