ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun has revealed that Todd Bertuzzi will make $2.25 million in the first year of his contract, and $1.625 million in the second year.
This is interesting because Tomas Holmstrom was just signed for $3.75 million, also over two seasons. Bertuzzi acquired a knack for screening goaltenders this season, a Holmstrom specialty, and Detroit must have saw a need to recognize that.
I’m not sure that Bertuzzi deserves to make more than Holmstrom, or even get a raise at all. While Bertuzzi put up great numbers over the first portion of his career, Holmstrom has been far more consistent and has put up much better numbers over the last half of his career. Holmstrom is older than Bertuzzi (Homer is 37, Bert is 35), but he put up bigger numbers last year than Bertuzzi, and played less games to do it. The fact that Detroit views Bertuzzi as more valuable than Holmstrom is saying alot.