The long-term contract for a goaltender... running the fine line between playing well, because he is secured in his position with the team and playing poorly, because he is now being paid regardless.
The Chicago Blackhawks have decided that they want to keep their Stanley Cup winning backstop for the foreseeable future, as they have signed Corey Crawford to a 6-year contract extension, which would take the 28-year old keeper through to the end of the 2020 season.
Crawford had a pretty good regular season, to go with his playoff success, finishing 37th in pool scoring last year, with 19 wins and 3 shutouts for 44 points. He finished with 1.50 points per 60 minutes in net for the Blackhawks, which was a career-high, but had to share the net with Ray Emery, so his numbers became a bit lower, but with excellent post-season results.
Now that we are moving back to the full 82-game season and Emery is gone to Philadelphia, Crawford will have Nikolai Khabibulin behind him and it is somewhat hard to believe that the two will be sharing the net as much as the previous pairing. Currently, I have Crawford booked in among the league's elite in my pool projections, expecting him to be a high 1st round pick in my draft this year, as I am looking at around 90 points for him.
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