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Comeback complete: Ray Emery signs one-year contract with Anaheim

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Former Senators and Flyers goalie Ray Emery has found a new home. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Emery signed a one year, two-way contract with the Anaheim Ducks worth $500,000. Emery will start off in the AHL with Syracuse so he can get into game shape. Under normal circumstances, Emery could get a two-week assignment to the AHL for conditioning purposes, but since he’ll need more than two weeks to prepare they signed him to a two-way deal to make sending him up and down easier.

Of course, there’s a catch to this. Since Emery is an NHL veteran they have to put him on waivers in order to send him to the AHL. If you’re thinking there’s a chance he’ll be grabbed up on waivers, think again. Any team that claimed Emery on waivers would have to put him on their NHL roster right away. With a goalie coming off a hip ailment and still needing to get into game shape, the chances that someone snags him on waivers is thin because putting him right out there against NHL competition would be bad news.

For Emery it’s a heck of a comeback. After discovering he had a degenerative hip condition, he found a way to work back to health and now he’s set to make his return to the NHL after being off the ice for a year. The bonus for him joining Anaheim is that it’s a no-stress situation backing up Jonas Hiller. For Hiller it provides him with an NHL-caliber backup goalie and someone that can ideally give him more rest to be ready for the playoffs. Curtis McElhinney has done a fine job backing up Hiller for now, but counting on him for more starts than he’s had was a dicey proposition for the Ducks. Emery provides Hiller with the support they’re ideally looking for.