Andy Greene has a 4-year contract to return to the New Jersey Devils (term pending), and the first thing that stands out is that he was a minus-23 last season.
But like so many of the Devils' individual stats it's a deceiving number.
He was a minus-24 through the end of December. When Jacques Lemaire took over and made the Devils look like, well, the Devils again, Greene was a plus-6 in January and February, his plus/minus inflating to the negative again once the Devils' playoff push ended.
Greene, 28, was third on the Devils last season with 22:21 average ice time, with an average of 1:16 TOI on the power play and 2:19 TOI shorthanded. He's a good puck-moving defenseman but he needs to find the form he had two years ago when he had 37 points.
From Tom Gulitti, who broke the signing:
Greene became an unrestricted free agent at noon today. His agent, Dan Plante, said four teams called at noon today and he described three as "Stanley Cup contenders."
Greene said his first choice was to remain a Devil. "It's nice to hear (other teams called), but in all reality New Jersey was where I wanted to be," he said. "It's good to hear you're wanted, but this is where I wanted to be."
Cap Geek had the Devils at $12,122,500 of space entering the Frenzy.