I get why Carolina is probably gun shy there.
They want to contend. They've had issues with goalies in short sample sizes before burning them once they got a bigger deal.
Recall that Nedeljkovic is a guy that hadn't shown a ton of promise at the AHL level with average stats, and also was a guy that was on waivers multiple times without being claimed.
So for them giving him $3M that probably feels really risky. This is a guy they've had in the organization for years that they were ready to give up on.
But for Detroit it makes so much sense at this cost. You aren't worried about cap space, you're supposed to suck anyways, and this gives you a potential look at a long term starting goalie if last year wasn't just a lucky 20 games.
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