Senators Sign Free Agent Goalie Joonas Korpisalo to a Five-Year Deal
Korpisalo holds the modern NHL record for saves in a single game with 85.
For the third time in less than three years, the Ottawa Senators have gone shopping for a veteran goaltender. After their ill-fated experiences with Matt Murray and Cam Talbot, the Senators hope the third time's the charm with Joonas Korpisalo.
Korpisalo signed a five-year contract with the Senators with an average annual value of $4 million. That's a tidy raise on the one-year, $1.3 million contract he signed in Columbus last season.
He says the Senators weren't his only NHL suitors.
"(I had) a couple of options and Ottawa stood out right away," Korpisalo told TSN. "Playing against (the Senators), it's a really capable team – a young team that's only going to get better. I'm just super excited to get to work with them. And Anton Forsberg is there too. I think that's going to be a good one-two punch right there."
In Forsberg and Korpisalo, the Sens are reuniting the 2015 Columbus Blue Jackets goalies of the future. The duo won a Calder Cup together in 2016 with the Lake Erie Monsters.
Forsberg is 30 and has never played more than 46 games in an NHL season. Korpisalo is 29 and has never played more than 37 in a season. Just based on money and commitment, Korpisalo would seem to have the early edge on the number one label, such as it is.
After spending his whole career in the Columbus organization, Korpisalo was moved at this year's deadline to Los Angeles where he closed out the regular season with a record of 7-3-1, a 2.13 GAA and .921 save percentage. That earned him the net for the first round of the playoffs where it didn't go nearly as well. He had a 3.77 GAA and an .892 save percentage as the Kings were eliminated in six by Edmonton.
This is the third time since 2020 Dorion has swung for the fences on a veteran goalie.
The first one went badly in October 2020, when Dorion acquired the rights to Penguin free agent Matt Murray and then signed him to a four year deal. Murray lasted two seasons before Dorion shipped him to Toronto, and even had to sweeten the deal by giving up two draft picks and keeping 25% of his salary.
The second one also went badly in 2022, when Dorion sent Filip Gustavsson to Minnesota for veteran Cam Talbot. Talbot ran into injuries right away and was never able to get on track. Meanwhile, the Wild are doing cartwheels as Gustavsson finished second in the entire league in save percentage.
It's interesting that Korpisalo left LA to sign here, effectively replacing Talbot. Then Talbot signed a one year deal today, effectively replacing Korpisalo in LA. Dorion said at season's end that he offered Talbot a one-year deal, but the netminder was seeking a two-year pact. Minutes into free agency today, Talbot signed in LA for the term he turned down in Ottawa and a base salary of a million bucks, just over NHL minimum wage.
Fun fact: Korpisalo holds the modern NHL record for saves in a single game with 85, despite a 3–2 defeat in quintuple overtime versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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