HabsWorld.net -- 

The Habs have locked up their backup goalie of the future for the foreseeable future as they inked Charlie Lindgren to a three-year contract extension.  All three years are one-way with a cap hit of $750,000 which represents a small raise on his current $700,000 NHL salary.  He will receive a $50,000 signing bonus each year with a base salary of $700,000.

Lindgren signed with the Habs back on March 30th, 2016 out of college and he has made a fairly significant impact since then.  He has played in 11 NHL games over parts of three seasons (including eight this year), posting a 6-4-1 record with a GAA of 2.21 and a .929 SV%.

He has spent the bulk of this season with Laval and while his numbers aren’t as strong (7-13-9 with a 3.15 GAA and a .893 SV% in 28 games), it’s important to note that he has a very poor defence in front of him.  He will likely spend the bulk of the reason of the season with the Rocket unless Antti Niemi (if he is eligible depending on whether or not another team tried to claim him off waivers when the Habs did) gets traded.

While Lindgren has another year of waiver exemption remaining, this deal makes it likely that he will spend the bulk of next season as Carey Price’s backup.  With Price’s new deal at $10.5 million per year commencing in 2018-19, Montreal needs a cheap backup to help offset that cap hit and Lindgren is in line to be the full-time backup come October.