Devils sign Corey Crawford

   Late into the evening of the first day of the NHL free agency period, the New Jersey Devils had an opening for the secondary/backup goaltender slot after the previous day's release of Cory Schneider and as several goaltenders moved off the board and signed with new teams, the Devils finally found someone that fit the suit in veteran Corey Crawford, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Crawford signed a two-year contract worth just under eight million over the two years, which is over a million dollars a year less than he was earning with Chicago.

Crawford, who will turn 36 on New Year's Eve, spent his entire career with the Blackhawks and it's only been the last two years that Crawford's stats fell off a bit, but the Blackhawks had arguably the league's worst defense in front of him and his numbers are still reasonably solid, as James O'Brien of Pro Hockey Talks states.

Chicago was interested in having Crawford return, but Crawford wasn't able to agree on the salary number to reach an agreement.

Crawford played in forty games last season for Chicago, winning sixteen with a GAA of 2.77 and a save percentage of .917 for the Blackhawks, who slid into the expanded playoffs as the final seed in the Western Conference and upset Edmonton in the mini-series before being eliminated by top-seeded Las Vegas in five games.

Crawford was the main goalie for Chicago in the most recent two of the Blackhawks three Stanley Cup victories in the last decade, so he has plenty of experience to lend to Mackenzie Blackwood, and Crawford holds the Blackhawks franchise record for a goalie, which was a mild surprise as I would have thought that Tony Esposito still would have held that title.

I really like this signing.

Crawford doesn't seem to have a problem working with Mackenzie Blackwood and his play is at a higher level than Cory Schneider and at a cheaper cost per season (not counting the spread out extra two years on the cap for the Schneider buy out) as well.

Crawford's old enough to accept not playing as much, but he's not washed up that he would kill the Devils in case he has to play more than expected in the event of an injury to Blackwood.

The Devils have clearly upgraded in net with a Blackwood/Crawford pairing compared to a duo of Blackwood/Schneider and not at an awful cost either.

New Jersey will likely spend on a few more players, but if anyone will be a player that could make an impact, the Devils would likely do so via trade from a cap-struggling team as they did Thursday night in trading for Ryan Murray from Columbus.