It was a good-news/bad-news week for Brandon Halverson. The bad news was that he wouldn’t be playing in his first All-Star Classic in Palm Desert, California tonight. The good news is that he won’t be there because he’s in Tampa practicing with the Lightning. On Monday morning, the team announced that they had signed the 28-year-old to a two-year deal that kicks in this season.
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Per Puckpedia, it is a two-way contract that pays Halverson $775,000 at the NHL level and $80,000 at the AHL level this season. Next season, the split becomes $775,000 and $250,000 with $300,000 guaranteed.
It’s been a long journey for Halverson to get back into the NHL, but he has more than earned a spot as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s back-up. The Traverse-City native was originally a second-round pick by the New York Rangers in 2014, two rounds before they drafted some guy named Igor Shesterkin. He appeared in the U20 World Championships twice for Team USA, serving as a back-up in both 2015 and 2016, but allowing just one goal over his three appearances. After wrapping up his junior career with the Soo Greyhounds he entered professional hockey in the 2016-17 season, splitting time between the AHL and ECHL.
He made his NHL debut the next season, appearing in one game for the New York Rangers where he stopped five out of six shots against the Ottawa Senators as a 21-year-old. From there, things kind of plateaued as he spent the next few seasons bouncing between the ECHL and the AHL. Injuries along the way plagued him a bit, and he missed the entire 2021-22 season. He started his comeback to the NHL overseas in the 2022-23 season, where he played in the German leagues with the Bayreuth Tigers.
The following season saw him sign with Orlando Solar Bears in the summer and then earn an AHL contract with the Crunch after just six games with Syracuse. Due to Matt Tomkins returning to Syracuse following his stint as Jonas Johansson’s back-up in Tampa, Halverson was loaned back to Orlando shortly after signing the contract. He was back with the Crunch by mid-March, and worked his way past Hugo Alnefelt on the depth chart. Halverson went 3-2-3 down the stretch, but earned the starting nod in the playoffs over Alnefelt (Tomkins was back in Tampa to begin the postseason) and posted a 3-4-0 record with an outstanding 2.19 GAA and .916 SV%.
This season saw him splitting time with Tomkins between the pipes, but a stellar start to the season earned him the all-star nod. He heads to Tampa ranked fifth in the AHL in goals against at 2.20, seventh in save percentage at .918, and tied for first with four shutouts. (The fact that those four shutouts constitute 40% of his ten wins speaks a little to how few goals the Crunch are scoring on the season).
The Crunch are off until Friday, so we can assume Halverson will stick with the Lightning at least through the next few games, but could be longer depending on the injury to Jonas Johansson. Halverson would have to go through waivers to be re-assigned to Syracuse, so it’s unlikely that we will see any of the paper transaction nonsense the Lightning have used with other recalls of late. The huge bump in AHL salary for next season, along with the guaranteed $300,000 could be a bit of poison pill for other teams thinking of making a waiver claim if Tampa Bay has to send him down.
With the contract extending into next season, and with JoJo an unrestricted free agent, it would appear that Halverson has the inside track to being the back-up next season. As for the Crunch, they will likely recall Ryan Fanti from Orlando to fill the void left with Halverson in Tampa.