UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Rick DiPietro re-signed with the New York Islanders on Tuesday, agreeing to a record 15-year deal that will pay the No. 1 goalie $67.5 million.
The Islanders scheduled an afternoon news conference to officially announce the contract that would keep DiPietro in the fold until 2021, when he would be nearly 40.
"We've been working at it all summer," DiPietro's agent Paul Krepelka told The Associated Press.
The deal, first reported by Newsday, is the longest in NHL history, topping the 10-year, $87.5 million contract the Islanders gave enigmatic center Alexei Yashin in 2001.
That was one of the contracts that sent NHL salaries soaring and led to the salary cap in the collective bargaining agreement that ended the lockout last year. It also saddled New York with a player who is nearly impossible to move and who takes up a big chunk of the team's $44 million maximum payroll.
"With a long-term deal, you're speculating what you'll be worth and what you'll be making," DiPietro said. "I don't think that player salaries are going to go up that much more. I mean, how much higher can they go?"
DiPietro's deal is believed to be second only in length in North American sports to the 25-year pact Magic Johnson signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1981.
"Clubs are free to make their own decisions within the confines laid out in the collective bargaining agreement and other applicable league rules," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. "Some decisions turn out well, others not so well.
"Time will tell whether this will be a good decision or a bad one for the Islanders."
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