More GM insanity

How do you reward a good goaltender for getting off to a horrendous start?

If you're Darryl Sutter, you sign him to a huge contract extension. You make him the highest-paid goaltender in the league.

That's exactly what happened today. The Calgary Flames announced that they signed Miikka Kiprusoff to a six year deal valued at $35M. From a salary cap standpoint, that's $5.83 per season. In real dollars, he'll make $6.7M if you're scoring along at home. That's only a few dollars less than what Jarome Iginla will be making.

"Kipper" was dominant for the last two seasons, but has gotten off to a very slow start this season. The 31-year old Finn has started 11 games, and has gone 5-3-3. His GAA is a ridiculously high 3.15, while his uncharacteristically low save percentage is .879. Matt at BofA was convinced that this wasn't in the cards. He threw together a great post outlining the reasons Kiprusoff would or wouldn't be traded this season. He was pretty much decided that Kipper would be traded to the Dinner Jackets at or near the trade deadline. This must have come as a huge surprise.

Next season, the Flames will have $14M invested in two players. They will have seven unrestricted free agents, so they'll have to resign or go shopping. They'll also have to re-sign Dion Phaneuf, whose rookie contract expires this season. He won't be cheap. They may have to buy out some of their highly paid defensemen to make it all happen.

People seem to be saying that this is a good thing, but it seems like insanity to me. It's just too much money for a goaltender who isn't named Martin Brodeur or Roberto Luongo.