Blues re-sign Joel Hofer: What the depth chart looks like heading into free agency
ST. LOUIS — For months, St. Louis Blues fans have been worried about goaltender Joel Hofer receiving an offer sheet.
It wasn't unwarranted.
The Edmonton Oilers need a goalie, and what could make them happier than retaliating against the Blues, who signed Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway away from them via offer sheets last August?
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But if those same Blues fans were listening to general manager Doug Armstrong last week, they were likely less concerned. Armstrong was asked about Hofer's contract situation in his pre-NHL draft news conference and made it clear that the Blues were ready to match any offer sheet if they chose to do so.
'I guess this is my shot across the bow,' Armstrong said Monday. 'You can go after him. You're not going to get him.'
Hofer, 24, would've become a restricted free agent and eligible for an offer sheet if unsigned by Tuesday. On Saturday, though, he signed a two-year, $6.8 million contract extension ($3.4 million average annual value).
Joel Hofer isn't going anywhere. #stlblues
DETAILS ➡️ https://t.co/HtKzszk5wM pic.twitter.com/4YzAJcjYmL
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) June 28, 2025
The Blues' goalie tandem for the 2025-26 season is now set with starter Jordan Binnington and Hofer at a combined $9.4 million AAV.
Binnington has two seasons left on his six-year, $36 million contract ($6 million AAV). Hofer had a $775,000 AAV on his expiring two-year contract, so his new $3.4 million AAV will be a sizable raise. Interestingly, with Hofer getting a two-year deal, the contracts of both netminders will be set to expire the same summer, 2027.
Hofer was 16-8-3 in 2024-25 with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage this past season. In the past two seasons combined, he has a 2.65 GAA and .909 save percentage, which rank eighth and 12th, respectively, amongst all NHL goalies (minimum 60 games played).
The $3.4 million AAV is substantial for a backup, but Hofer has been heavily relied upon the past two seasons. In 2023-24, Binnington started 55 games and Hofer 27. In 2024-25, Binnington started 54 games and Hofer 28.
The load distribution could be similar in 2025-26 with the NHL participating in the Olympics and a dense schedule expected, particularly post-Olympics.
Pending restricted free agents: Nikita Alexandrov, Mikhail Abramov, Tanner Dickinson
Pending unrestricted free agents: Radek Faksa, Mackenzie MacEachern, Corey Andonovski
Roster hopefuls: Dalibor Dvorsky ($886,666), Zach Dean ($852,500), Dylan Peterson ($867,500)
Pending restricted free agents: Hunter Skinner, Anton Malmstrom
Pending unrestricted free agents: Ryan Suter
Roster hopefuls: Matthew Kessel ($800,000), Corey Schueneman ($775,000), Adam Jiricek ($942,500)
Pending restricted free agents: Vadim Zherenko
Roster hopefuls: Colten Ellis ($775,000)
Cap charges: $90,834,708
Projected bonus overages: $2,153,475
Projected salary cap: $92,988,183
Projected LTIR: $6,500,000 (Torey Krug's salary)
Projected salary-cap space (when using LTIR): $9,011,817
Source: PuckPedia
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As was the case for Jordan when he stepped away from the game from 1993-95, Clark's absence — she missed five games over nearly three weeks with a quad injury — demonstrated how much she moves the needle. Two games on NBA TV had viewership drop by 40 percent compared to the Fever's first game on the network with Clark, though one still ranked in the channel's top-10 broadcasts. Although the Fever's game against the Chicago Sky reached 1.9 million viewers – the third most for a WNBA game on CBS — it was 30 percent fewer than watched the Sky-Fever game with Clark on ABC. The resale tickets for the game at the United Center also dropped about 70 percent after Clark's injury was announced, yet it still drew a Sky-record 19,496 fans. Advertisement 'She's going to be massively underpaid because it's not just what she's doing for her team but what she's doing for the other teams,' said Michael Leeds, a professor of economics at Temple University. Said the aforementioned industry source: 'She's making opposing owners seven figures when she shows up.' Clark entered the WNBA at an opportune time after growing her brand at Iowa, profiting off modern name, image and likeness rules and more television exposure for women's basketball players. The WNBA was already entering a substantial growth period, too, with league revenues doubling from 2019 to 2023, per Bloomberg. Yet, while Clark was jet fuel for the moment, the structures of the sport have stopped her from capturing her full worth. The WNBA's ownership model prevents players from receiving the bulk of its revenue. The NBA owned half of the league before 2022, when the WNBA sold 16 percent of its equity in a $75 million capital raise, a transaction that diluted the then-12 teams' total stake to 42 percent. NBA players take home 50 percent of basketball-related income, while the other half goes to the owners. 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Because the revenue targets are cumulative, the WNBA hasn't caught up despite recent rapid growth, preventing all players from benefiting from financial gains. Advertisement The league also has a hard cap per team that limits individual salaries. The cap is currently $1.5 million, a total spread among 11 to 12 players per team. To increase the cap, and thus increase salaries, the league needs a massive growth in revenue. And the biggest driver of revenue across sports leagues is media rights. Last year, the league signed the richest media rights deal in women's sports league history. The value of what commissioner Cathy Engelbert has called the WNBA's 'tranche 1' deals — around $200 million annually over 11 years with Disney/ESPN, NBC and Amazon as of 2026 — jumped from $33 million with ESPN in 2025. (The total value of the W's current media rights with all of its partners is about $50 million this year.) But the uptick in value was agreed upon before Clark-mania officially began in the WNBA. The NBA and WNBA did not announce the terms of the new media rights deal until July 2024, but a source with knowledge of the agreement, who was not authorized to discuss the deal publicly, said the details were agreed upon before the start of the 2024 WNBA season, and before the announcement of the Toronto and Portland expansion teams. At a congressional hearing this May, Bill Koenig, the NBA's president of global content and media distribution, said the WNBA was mindful of the league's growth trajectory and put in provisions to reflect the league's upside. The WNBA can still sell additional media rights as part of its 'tranche 2' deals; it currently has deals with ION and CBS, for instance, and just extended its agreement with ION in June. There is also a revenue-sharing provision in the 'tranche 1' agreement, in which the WNBA would benefit incrementally if advertising revenue exceeds a certain level. Perhaps most importantly to the league's future revenue is an opportunity for the WNBA to initiate a 'look-in' provision in three years to increase the value of the agreement. But experts said it's still unclear how much renegotiated media rights deals would be worth. Leeds, the Temple professor, said that it is difficult to ascribe broadcast rights effects directly to a single player, because the negotiation involves a broader, multi-year package. Furthermore, while the WNBA's national regular-season ratings are comparable to those of major men's leagues and set records (or near records) on an almost weekly basis, WNBA playoff ratings still lag. 'Media value is not something that is particularly precise and calibrated to exactly what happens week-to-week, month-to-month or even year-to-year,' said Ed Desser, a longtime NBA employer who negotiated the WNBA's first media contract and is now an industry consultant. Advertisement Though the incoming media rights deal is a historic sum for the WNBA, the total figure is still only about five times the current deal and future increases via the look-in are unlikely to be massive. Even if all of the TV revenue were funneled into player salaries, the individual max would still be in the realm of $1.25 million. Thus, this source of revenue would still fall short of capturing the additional value Clark has brought the league. Cramer, the Harvard economist, hasn't modeled how much of the WNBA's economic growth can be attributed to Clark, but he said, 'Consider if there was an increase in the league over a 10-year horizon in the order of billions. If she's 25 percent of that, then that's how I would say she could have brought $750 million to the league.' He said she's made an even more significant impact on the economics of women's sports more broadly. 'I think her overall value to women's sports starts with a B,' Cramer said. 'It's in the billions for sure.' His insight draws on the significant increases in media rights and franchise valuations over the last few years, as Clark rose to prominence in college and now stars in the pros. All of this projection comes before Clark has played in an Olympics, made a deep postseason run, or even finished a season with a winning record. Clark will almost assuredly never receive in salary what she is worth to the WNBA. In that regard, she's a lot like Jordan, and other all-time greats across sports. Yet, no matter the challenge in quantifying her value, her impact is palpable. As Kosner, the former ESPN executive, put it, 'I think every commissioner in every sport wishes he or she had a Caitlin Clark.' (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Visual data: Thomas Oide / The Athletic; Photo of Caitlin Clark:)
