The Devils waived Cory Schneider for the purposes of buying out the remaining two seasons of his contract.
More than likely, no one claims Schneider and he would join the free agent pool on Friday.
The 34 year old Schneider had two seasons to go at six million per year, which the Devils will apply to their cap over four years at two million per year.
The decision to deal with Schneider status now rather than later will put New Jersey in play for a veteran goaltender to backup Mackenzie Blackwood, play 20-25 games a year, and hopefully serve as a sounding board for the Devils young netminder.
That would be the smart move as I'm not sure bringing in a "1A" goaltender helps Blackwood or the Devils with the team being in rebuilding mode, Blackwood needs to play and yet the backup can't be a player that isn't satisfied with the secondary role.
Cory Schneider was obtained way back at the 2013 draft, when New Jersey (two general managers ago) traded the ninth overall pick to Vancouver (Vancouver picked Bo Horvat with that pick, so that worked out...) for Schneider with the plan for Schneider to supplant Martin Brodeur in net.
The problem for the Devils became this- Brodeur wasn't ready to retire, although he had begun to slip, yet Schneider at 27 at the time, wasn't going to be satisfied waiting behind a star goaltender for a second time after waiting in vain for the Canucks position to open behind Roberto Luongo, and didn't endear himself to the fan base by appearing to push Brodeur out the door when Schneider essentially told the team that he was unlikely to re-sign after the next season (2014-15) if he was going to share time again with Brodeur.
New Jersey didn't have a lot of choice with a fading Brodeur (Marty would turn 42 during that season), having given up a top ten draft pick and what would have been a gaping canyon at goal had they allowed Schneider to leave, so they cut ties with Brodeur (Brodeur would play seven games for the Blues that season and retire) and following the 2014-15 season, signed Schneider to the seven year contract that he is still working on today.
Schneider's first two seasons were very good (winning 53 games and posting goals against averages of 2.26 and 2.15), but the team didn't make the playoffs in either season and his play began to slip as his numbers (GAA and Save Percentage) would worsen in every season after 2015-16.
Schneider missed time with groin injuries in 2017-18 and with Keith Kinkaid playing most of the second half, the Devils made the playoffs for the only time in Schneider's tenure.
Schneider did start three of the five games in New Jersey's first round series loss to Tampa Bay, but the real decline in Schneider's play came in the following season after he never seemed to rebound from off-season hip surgery.
Schneider's tenure ended even worse after he would play in only 26 and 13 games in what would be his final two seasons in Newark with his goals against average moving to over three goals per game and losing his job to Mackenzie Blackwood before the ultimate indignity in 2019-20 when the Devils demoted him to AHL Binghamton last season where he would play in only fourteen games.
The time was right to move on from Schneider and his contract in this time of rebuilding , but I have mixed feelings on Schneider.
He was never a favorite of mine, but his first two seasons as the full-time goaltender on a bad team with a poor defense in front of him were very good and I won't forget those.
However, he seemed to get worse by the game following that period, didn't always seem to be giving his best effort (although how much of that was effort or health-related can be considered), and wasn't the type of player that was going to flourish as a mentor, although that could been being with the Devils in that role.
Often, players will accept a role with one team that they were reluctant to take with another team.
Perhaps there were too many memories for Schneider to accept that slot with the Devils and he'd be more willing to do so somewhere else.
Wow, that's a lot of Devils talk!
Four posts in three days.
Back later with the PPM and the Boxing Challenge with a world championship on line tonight on ESPN.
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