Swedish top goalie drives up NHL salaries

The Swedish top goalie Linus Ullmark's new multi-million contract with Ottawa and the new one for his former teammate, Boston's Jeremy Swayman, seems to be driving up goalie salaries in the NHL.

Now, Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger has signed an eight-year contract with Dallas, with an annual salary of 8.25 million dollars – equivalent to almost 90 million kronor. It's the same annual salary level as in Swayman's eight-year contract totaling 66 million dollars and Ullmark's four-year contract totaling 33 million dollars.

We reasoned like this: We find out what the market says (read: about salary levels) and when we know that, we can talk. And that's what we've done, says Dallas club manager Jim Nill, about why the club has drawn out the contract negotiations and how they managed to keep Oettinger, whose annual salary is doubled with the new contract.