Bruins sign Jaroslav Halak to a contract extension

In a bit of a surprising move, the Bruins announces today that they've signed goalie Jaroslav Halak to a one-year contract extension.

Halak's new deal will carry a cap hit of $2.25 million.

The deal is surprising for two reasons: I thought Halak might try to get a starting role elsewhere, and the cap hit is lower than his current cap hit ($2.75 million).

Halak has been fantastic for the Bruins, yet he took a slight pay cut to stay here. He's not quite at the point yet where his age merits less money either, so he must like it here.

As the Bruins' most consistent backup in years, Halak has won 40 games over his 1.5 seasons in Boston.

A great move by Don Sweeney, and great news for the the team as a whole.

UPDATE: A detail that makes the whole thing make a bit more sense for Halak now:

Barring injury, it's pretty much a lock that Halak hits that bonus target.

The "bonus" aspect of it allows the B's to defer it off the salary cap, something they've done with deals for guys like Zdeno Chara and (I believe) Jarome Iginla in the past.

In this case, Halak is getting a raise, which makes sense, given his performance.

Some nice cap finagling by the Bruins.