Is Chrome Just As "Safe" as Safari with Regards to Passwords?
Chrome uses a combination of an internal database (LoginDatabase) and Keychain to store passwords.

LoginDatabase stores some metadata, including usernames but not passwords, about each login that is stored. The site's URL, username and password are stored in Keychain. (The reason for the split is that extra metadata needs to be saved that isn't supported in Keychain.)

If you have your existing Keychain and a new Chrome profile, Chrome will not "remember" any logins. There has to be a matching entry in both LoginDatabase and Keychain for Chrome to display the login.

As far as password storage in Keychain being "safe", anything storing data in Keychain is only as safe as your Keychain password. Whether or not it is "safe" is a highly subjective.

(See this and this for more information.)