Elliott Keeps St. Louis As His Home

It may only be the middle of May, but the NHL silly season is rapidly approaching. After the Cup Finals, we'll have the Draft and then the Free Agent Frenzy.  Well, a signing in the middle of May has opened the door for some more questions in the silly season, as the St. Louis Blues have re-signed goaltender Brian Elliott to a 3-year, $7.5 million deal on Monday morning.

In the announcement of the deal, the Blues have made their intentions clear that Elliott and prospect goaltender, Jake Allen, will be the team's goaltending tandem, which means veteran goaltender Ryan Miller will pursue a new deal as an unrestricted free agent, come July 1st, if not sooner, pending a deal to get a deal done with another team.

Before the deal that brought Miller in from Buffalo to St. Louis, Elliott was sharing the goaltending duties with Jaroslav Halak and the team was dynamite, especially Elliott.  The newly re-signed keeper made 31 appearances in the 2014 season, winning 18 games, earning 4 shutouts and adding 2 assists, giving him 46 points on the year.  Given the limited amount of time, 46 points was a pretty good number, as he was good enough for 1.7 points per 60 minutes on the ice he played, a number clearly better than the 23 goalies ahead of him in points had all year.

It seems likely that Elliott should get the longest look in training camp to be the number one guy, but he will see a good push from Allen, who didn't get a chance to show what he has learned in the minors in the 2014 season.  If you're starting your hockey pool homework early, I would be putting a nice early boost on Elliott's projected numbers, likely in the 80-85 point range.