New Jersey Devils: Buying Out Cory Schneider Actually Not That Bad

The New Jersey Devils have a serious problem in net, especially with Cory Schneider. If the Devils decide to buy out the final three years of his contract, it’s actually not that bad on their salary cap.

Cory Schneider is no longer a good goalie. He’s the worst goalie in a long time, actually. The New Jersey Devils have had bad goalie play, but when you compare Keith Kinkaid to Schneider’s play this season, he looks like Martin Brodeur. Just take a look:

Pucks and Pitchfork’s writer Tyler Kelley made his own goalie tool, and it is very bad news for Mr. Schneider. Many of those advanced stats would rank dead last in the National Hockey League. Dead freaking last.

It’s been extremely rough. Cory Schneider deserves so much better. He was the team’s rock when it didn’t have one. It seems like as soon as they got Taylor Hall, a player that could take the load off Schneider’s shoulders. In the years before Hall arrived, Schneider posted save percentages of .921, .925 and .924. Those are best in the league numbers.

If he was putting those numbers up this season, he’s be at worst top twelve, but more likely top five.

However, this season he’s putting up a .852 save percentage. That’s 30 points worse than any goalie that qualifies to have their stats counted. Think about that. Joonas Korpisalo has a .882 save percentage for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Schneider has let up well more than him. In fact, Schneider’s allowed 29 goals in nine games, while Korpisalo allowed 36 in 12 games.

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The Devils are running out of options with Schneider. This makes three straight lost seasons for their goaltender. They have him signed for three more seasons after this one. It’s not a great situation to be in, especially when you are paying him $6 million per season. Last month, I floated the idea to send Schneider to the minors. There is clearly something wrong mentally, and if a few good games could snap him out of it, then try him out where the competition isn’t as high.

It may be beyond that at this point. Schneider is once again on injured reserve, after hurting something in his midsection during his last start. We all thought he was pulled after allowing a pretty terrible goal against the Vegas Golden Knights, his third of the first period. Once again, Schneider is hurt after a bad performance.

This is something I did not want to float, but it might be time to actually discuss the “b” word. Buyout.

The CapFriendly buyout calculator tells us it would cost the Devils $2 million per season to buy out Schneider. That would last for six seasons, so it would be a hit on the Devils cap for a long time, but $2 million is not going to make or break the Devils roster. Honestly, it would help the Devils in the long run. With the cap going up every single year, paying him out over six years would be worth to save the money now.

This isn’t an option Ray Shero even has to think about until the season is over. The money is spent right now. Schneider still has that playoff stretch last season to show that a great goalie is somewhere in there. It may be deep down, but it’s there. The Devils need to decide whether they have the right people in place to get him back there, or if it’s time to cut ties.