The Edmonton Oilers have brought in Frederik Andersen on a one-year contract that comes with a $1 million base salary and as much as $2.8 million in performance bonuses, according to PuckPedia.
The #LetsGoOilers signed 36 y/o G Freddie Andersen to 1 year deal
Salary $1M
Perf Bonuses $1.8M: $600K @ 10GP, 400K @ 20GP, $200K for each playoff round won where he plays 50% of games)
Cap Hit $1M, AAV $2.8M
No Move Clause with 15 Team No Trade List
Rep'd by @4sportshockey …
Andersen’s path to Edmonton has been a strange one. He was drafted twice by NHL teams, first by the Carolina Hurricanes in the seventh round in 2010. After Carolina let his rights expire a couple of years later, he went back into the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and was picked by the Anaheim Ducks.
He has now spent 13 seasons in the league, including three with Anaheim, five with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the last five with the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.
This signing comes after a season that swung wildly in both directions. In 35 regular-season games, Andersen finished with an .874 save percentage, a 3.05 goals-against average, and a minus-18.3 goals saved above expected. That kind of line would have made it tough for teams to line up for him on the open market.
Then the playoffs changed the picture. Andersen went 13-2-0 for Carolina with a .910 save percentage, a 1.89 goals-against average, and five goals saved above expected, giving himself a much stronger finish than his regular season suggested.
That sort of inconsistency has followed him through his career. In 2021-22, his first year with the Hurricanes, he was one of the league’s top goaltenders with 22.1 goals saved above expected. Last season, though, showed the other side of the coin, which is why the 36-year-old remains such a hard read.
The other issue is availability. Andersen has dealt with a long list of injuries, most notably blood clotting in 2023-24. Since 2020-21, he has only reached 50 games once, and aside from 2021-22, he has not played more than 35 games in a season during that span.
For Edmonton, the expectation is that Andersen will work in tandem with either Tristan Jarry or Devon Levi, both of whom the Oilers also acquired on the opening day of free agency. If he stays healthy and the Oilers manage his workload, the deal is a reasonable gamble on a goalie who has shown he can still perform at a very high level.
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