Blues sign Jake Allen to four-year contract extension

The St. Louis Blues have signed young goaltender Jake Allen to a four-year contract extension worth $17.4 million.

The deal doesn’t officially kick in until 2017-18 and Allen is still signed for one more year at a $2.35 million salary cap hit. Friday was the first day the 25-year-old Allen could have been signed to a deal by the Blues.

At the NHL Draft the Blues traded Brian Elliott to the Calgary Flames, in order to hand the team over to Allen, who had platooned with Elliott last season.

In 2015-16, Allen held a 2.35 goal-against average and .920 save percentage in 47 games played. He started two playoff games and had a 2.49 goal-against average and .904 save percentage.

The prior year he started for St. Louis in the postseason and had a 2.20 goal-against average and .904 save percentage in a six-game loss to the Minnesota Wild in the first-round.

The Blues also announced they signed former Nashville Predators backup goaltender to a two-year, $2.25 million contract, giving them a solid, experienced tandem in goal for the next several years.

Last season, Allen ranked 13th amongst 23 goaltenders who had played at least 2,000 5-on-5 minutes with a .9263 save percentage.

The Blues have $10,370,418 of salary cap space currently with only young restricted free agent scorer Jaden Schwartz needing to be signed to a new contract.

They’ve also signed grinding forward David Perron in the first two hours of unrestricted free agency, but also seen David Backes and Troy Brouwer leave.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper