“The Moose” is back.

The New Jersey Devils re-signed unrestricted goalie Johan Hedberg to a one-year contract. Lamoriello wanted to re-sign Hedberg, and began talks last week with his agent. They couldn’t reach a deal before the noon deadline, and Hedberg hit the open market. Several teams were interested, but Hedberg wanted to stay with New Jersey.

“There was interest, which is great,” Hedberg told Tom Gulitti of The Bergen Record. “It’s flattering, but with everything accounted for, I felt good about coming back here. That was my first choice and when everything worked out and it felt like we were able to find some good ground I felt good about coming back.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Hedberg apparently took less money to return to New Jersey.

“We were discussing numbers,” Hedberg told Gulitti. “It’s so hard. This is a tough day. There’s so much to take into consideration. Money isn’t everything for me. I just want to feel that I’m getting fairly treated. When I felt that was the case, I was happy to sign. Like I said, that was my No. 1 choice and when we could agree on something that made sense to me I really wanted to do it.”

Hedberg, who turned 38 on May 5, went 15-12-2 last season. He recorded a career-best 2.38 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage and three shutouts. He made $1.5 million (plus bonuses) last season.

Although he didn’t like being away from his family, Hedberg will once again leave his wife and daughter to return to New Jersey.

“That was one of the things too that I had to take into consideration if it could be what I could justify to myself to do,” Hedberg told Gulitti. “But I think it’s going to work out for the best. I still want to play. I still feel like I can contribute and I still feel I’ve got some good years ahead of me, so I don’t want to just not do anything. We’re going to do it liek thsi for now and we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, it will be good.”