ST. LOUIS — Jordan Binnington, who came from off the bench to lead the Blues to the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 2019, on Thursday signed a six-year contract extension with an average annual value of $6 million.
Binnington would have been an unrestricted free agent after the season. He had signed a two-year contract with an annual average value of $4.4 million after the Stanley Cup season.
Getting their star goaltender under contract was a major issue for the Blues, who had only one other goalie, the inexperienced backup Ville Husso, under contract.
"It came together really quickly when we started it," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "Jordan is obviously a top goalie in the league, he's got the pedigree of a champion and to have him locked up through the meat of his career, six years starting at (age) 28 through 33, it's a good feeling."
It's been a long trip for Binnington to get to this point. Binnington, 27, was drafted by the Blues in the third round (88th overall) in 2011. In 2017-18, when the Blues didn't have an affiliated farm team, the team wanted to send him to the ECHL to get games, but he balked and the team ended up loaning him to Boston's Providence farm team, where he got only a little work.
In 2018-19, Husso was the top goalie prospect in the Blues system, but when the team decided to replace struggling backup Chad Johnson, Husso was struggling as well, and Binnington got the callup. After sitting on the bench while Jake Allen started 14 straight games, Binnington made his first NHL start on Jan. 7, a 3-0 win at Philadelphia, and started the team on a path to its first Stanley Cup.
