Confirmed with Link: Arbitration Avoided, Bratt Signs for 1 year, $5.45 million

[Bleedred]

Parise was a good as gone in the Summer of 2010. Soon as his Dad started talking about his son not being the priority and they fired their agent and hired Newport Sports...Parise was as good as gone.

Soon as the Kovalchuk was inked Parise was gearing up for UFA

I think this is true, most signs point to this being true, but what I don't understand was why he was going out of his way in the end of season interviews in 2010 saying ''I hope we sign him. I hope this wasn't his last game with us. I really hope we re-sign him because he can really help us''.

Obviously, it wouldn't be the first time a player spouted off bullshit to look politically correct and more classy, but it seemed unnecessary to really praise him and basically endorse his coming back if us retaining him really caused him to feel alienated and pushed him away.

Unless it was just the fact that Lou re-signed Kovalchuk before offering Parise a long term extension and he wasn't actually pissed that we brought Kovalchuk back as much he was pissed that he wasn't locked up first.

From my perspective, he still had another year left on his deal that offseason, so I don't know why he should have been a priority over a guy that was on the UFA market, whereas Parise had 2 more years of team control and still a whole season left until his contract was up.

And while the Devils didn't sign Kovalchuk until the middle of July (and that's not including all the bullshit and then it taking the whole summer before the actual contract went through), we legally couldn't have signed Parise to an extension until the same day Kovalchuk became a UFA.

 

[JimEIV]

I'm ''Hating'' on Wood because this type of player is not somebody we should investing in long term.

Players of his like don't age well. Your proposal is TOO MUCH MONEY for a 4th liner and it's TOO MUCH TERM for a 4th liner. Who signs 4th liners for that long? Lou?

I said the same thing about Zacha, but even he is WAY SAFER of a long term investment than Wood is, as he's almost two years younger and much more skilled. And he's not a 4th liner.

We shouldn't be signing guys just to sign them. We're up at the salary cap and we're gonna sign guys like him to $3.5 million dollar deals for multiple years and guys like Blackwood (who has ROBBED us and been overpaid by almost $2 million a year on this contract) for that much money going forward?

If Miles Wood is still in the league in 3-4 years from now, it won't be for that amount of money, unless he's been bought out of that proposed deal or is on LTIR.

You don't keep players like Miles Wood for that many years into their 30's..... Unless you wanna pay them FRINGE money, which $3.5 million is really not fringe money right now. Maybe once the cap starts going way up that might be close to fringe.

We have to move on from players because there's this thing called the salary cap and players like Wood (4th liner coming off a year long HIP INJURY on top of that) are the eaiest, no-brainer players to move on from. Unless (once again) he wants to stick around for $1.5-$2 million or so a year? And even then he shoudn't require a 3 year deal.

If he scores a bunch of points next year then that's even more all the reason to let someone else David Clarkson him.

Randy McKay held up very well...And see similarities between the two players. I think McKay was overall more talented maybe a little less recklessness too...But who the hell knows what's up with Wood's hip

 

[NJ Devil]

Im not sure how one could have seen arbitration as a bad thing, but then this 1-year deal prior to it as sufficient. History shows 1-year deals after or right before arbitration usually spell the player being moved within a years time.

We essentially went to arbitration. The relationship has been strained, this wasnt some ultimate ploy to buy time for Jesper to increase his value.

Theres no need for the copium thats going on and trying to convince others of things that arent relevant or true. Cap space did not have any part in this as we had plenty when he said no to long-term and it isnt rising next year either, cant go up more than 2.5. And Fitzgerald willingly used up the cap space to sign Bratt with no fall-back plan if he did sign for long-term? Very doubtful and just simply illogical, to lock out your best player from being able to sign.

Jesper made his decision. He wants to get to UFA quicker. Seeing anything past this or 'maybe he wanted to prove it again this year for a bigger payday' like as if we didnt pay Hischier Jack and Siegenthaler based on less than a PPG, 70+GP season with advanced stats in the McDavid territory.

Thats just the cold hard facts of this and.. well, anyone trying to spin it as if its a non-chalant thing to happen (agreeing to a 1-year deal hours before arb) and that the next negotiations will be in any way a substantial difference.. theyre just trying to trick themselves into a good nights sleep is all.

This is the first big road block for Fitzgerald's Devils. Lets see how he handles it.

 

[Camille the Eel]

the 64 million dollar question going forward is what does Bratt want? A long term deal here like 7 years at a figure like 8 to 11 million - or to go to free agency the year after next and see what his market will bring? It behooves us to get a read on that sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile let’s win some games this year. It’s time. Our roster is competitive with the other clubs in our division. If we stay healthy and still can’t perform now, I’d say the issue will be coaching.

 

[JimEIV]

We had 22m in cap space when we offered whatever we offered Bratt on long-term. Whether that was 6-8mil, whatever it be, we offered it and he coulda signed.

And then lets just argue.. Bratt wanted more. Why on Earth would Fitzgerald go out and use up all his cap space while negotiating an 8-year, lucrative deal with Jesper?

The case is still seemingly very clear. Jesper wants short-term and its very, very likely he will want short-term again. Otherwise, why didnt Fitz just give in on a 4-5 year deal? That increases Jesper's trade value and keeps him here longer, albeit not as long as youd like.

Nothing about this situation seems like it was done to 'buy time'. You dont buy time with your most important RFA and risk losing them by doing so

Yup

 

[Bleedred]

Randy McKay held up very well...And see similarities between the two players. I think McKay was overall more talented maybe a little less recklessness too...But who the hell knows what's up with Wood's hip

Well, first and foremost, no salary cap in Randy McKay's playing days. McKay was weird because he didn't even have his first season of more than 27 points until he was 30-31 and it was 48 points. That was also his first of only 2 seasons of hitting 20 or more goals. That was the first of 4 straight seasons where he would get at least 37 point and one of only two times that he would hit 40+ points. And after those 4 seasons he only played 2 more years and didn't even hit 20 points again.

I can't find ATOI from prior to the 98-99 season on hockey reference, but I'm willing to bet he played more minutes or at the very least got more power play time in those 4 seasons than he had prior to that. The crash line was the 4th line for a few years and they probably only played 10-12 minutes a night.

Randy McKay did really look terrible in his final season as a Devil and I'm glad he got shipped out as a throw-in to a huge trade, as he really seemed like a player when looking back on it that Lou would have kept around way too long.

 

[Better Call Sal]

The always undervalued component of Parise peacing out was Hucksterbeek making delayed payments to the players and being a clown of an owner.

Love that he was a fan like us, but you know, pay people on time lol

 

[ninetyeight]

For the Devils it walks him closer to UFA, he gains a lot more leverage in one years time and potentially sets a precedent for other young players on this team.

It’s just not a great outcome at all, imo.

It's not the best outcome, but it's not the worst either. 2-4 year would have been worse. At least now they don't have to LTIR Bernier and/or unload some contracts. If they can get an extension done next year then this doesn't matter.

 

[DevilDog]

Best case scenario moving forward is Bratt proves he’s a PPG player and Fitz uses the Cap space freed by the end of the Johnson and Tatar contracts to lock him up. Could have been worse…

 

[Ripshot 43]

The always undervalued component of Parise peacing out was Hucksterbeek making delayed payments to the players and being a clown of an owner.

Love that he was a fan like us, but you know, pay people on time lol

What is this the KHL?!?

 

[JimEIV]

Well, first and foremost, no salary cap in Randy McKay's playing days. McKay was weird because he didn't even have his first season of more than 27 points until he was 30-31 and it was 48 points. That was also his first of only 2 seasons of hitting 20 or more goals. That was the first of 4 straight seasons where he would get at least 37 point and one of only two times that he would hit 40+ points. And after those 4 seasons he only played 2 more years and didn't even hit 20 points again.

I can't find ATOI from prior to the 98-99 season on hockey reference, but I'm willing to bet he played more minutes or at the very least got more power play time in those 4 seasons than he had prior to that. The crash line was the 4th line for a few years and they probably only played 10-12 minutes a night.

Randy McKay did really look terrible in his final season as a Devil and I'm glad he got shipped out as a throw-in to a huge trade, as he really seemed like a player when looking back on it that Lou would have kept around way too long.

I was just really commenting on his durability...McKay was still solid at 34 years old. In fact at 34 it was his second best point and goals seasons...He definitely did fall a cliff quickly though and we did trade him at a perfect time...But he was also 35 years old when we traded him

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

We had 22m in cap space when we offered whatever we offered Bratt on long-term. Whether that was 6-8mil, whatever it be, we offered it and he coulda signed.

And then lets just argue.. Bratt wanted more. Why on Earth would Fitzgerald go out and use up all his cap space while negotiating an 8-year, lucrative deal with Jesper?

The case is still seemingly very clear. Jesper wants short-term and its very, very likely he will want short-term again. Otherwise, why didnt Fitz just give in on a 4-5 year deal? That increases Jesper's trade value and keeps him here longer, albeit not as long as youd like.

Nothing about this situation seems like it was done to 'buy time'. You dont buy time with your most important RFA and risk losing them by doing so

Because his job is to build the best team he can, not please Jesper Bratt and his representatives. I wanted Bratt on a long term deal, but I’m not scrapping plans to improve the roster to give him a deal that you can give him in a year’s time when you have a ton of space to do so.

Was Fitz supposed to just sit there with his thumb up his ass all offseason waiting for Bratt’s agent to respond? He made an offer, and proceeded with his plans. We now have added some solid pieces, plus have Bratt on a value deal while still having another year of RFA. If we want him long term and he wants to be here, the deal will be made next offseason.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Im not sure how one could have seen arbitration as a bad thing, but then this 1-year deal prior to it as sufficient. History shows 1-year deals after or right before arbitration usually spell the player being moved within a years time.

We essentially went to arbitration. The relationship has been strained, this wasnt some ultimate ploy to buy time for Jesper to increase his value.

Theres no need for the copium thats going on and trying to convince others of things that arent relevant or true. Cap space did not have any part in this as we had plenty when he said no to long-term and it isnt rising next year either, cant go up more than 2.5. And Fitzgerald willingly used up the cap space to sign Bratt with no fall-back plan if he did sign for long-term? Very doubtful and just simply illogical, to lock out your best player from being able to sign.

Jesper made his decision. He wants to get to UFA quicker. Seeing anything past this or 'maybe he wanted to prove it again this year for a bigger payday' like as if we didnt pay Hischier Jack and Siegenthaler based on less than a PPG, 70+GP season with advanced stats in the McDavid territory.

Thats just the cold hard facts of this and.. well, anyone trying to spin it as if its a non-chalant thing to happen (agreeing to a 1-year deal hours before arb) and that the next negotiations will be in any way a substantial difference.. theyre just trying to trick themselves into a good nights sleep is all.

This is the first big road block for Fitzgerald's Devils. Lets see how he handles it.

These aren’t cold hard facts

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Lou was a dumbass for that.

Parise takes some blame too, he was stringing us along.

Zach was coming off a bad leg injury too wasn't he? I think it was a bad situation all around between Kovy's huge contract, post injury surgery, RFA year, dad issues, etc. A lot of of "it's not you, it's me" drama.

 

[devilsblood]

I'm ''Hating'' on Wood because this type of player is not somebody we should investing in long term.

Players of his like don't age well. Your proposal is TOO MUCH MONEY for a 4th liner and it's TOO MUCH TERM for a 4th liner. Who signs 4th liners for that long? Lou?

I said the same thing about Zacha, but even he is WAY SAFER of a long term investment than Wood is, as he's almost two years younger and much more skilled. And he's not a 4th liner.

We shouldn't be signing guys just to sign them. We're up at the salary cap and we're gonna sign guys like him to $3.5 million dollar deals for multiple years and guys like Blackwood (who has ROBBED us and been overpaid by almost $2 million a year on this contract) for that much money going forward?

If Miles Wood is still in the league in 3-4 years from now, it won't be for that amount of money, unless he's been bought out of that proposed deal or is on LTIR.

You don't keep players like Miles Wood for that many years into their 30's..... Unless you wanna pay them FRINGE money, which $3.5 million is really not fringe money right now. Maybe once the cap starts going way up that might be close to fringe.

We have to move on from players because there's this thing called the salary cap and players like Wood (4th liner coming off a year long HIP INJURY on top of that) are the eaiest, no-brainer players to move on from. Unless (once again) he wants to stick around for $1.5-$2 million or so a year? And even then he shoudn't require a 3 year deal.

If he scores a bunch of points next year then that's even more all the reason to let someone else David Clarkson him.

If he signed a 3 year deal next offseason the deal would end while he is 30 years old. Hardly “into his 30’s”.

 

[JimEIV]

Zach was coming off a bad leg injury too wasn't he? I think it was a bad situation all around between Kovy's huge contract, post injury surgery, RFA year, dad issues, etc. A lot of of "it's not you, it's me" drama.

Ripped his Achilles

 

[NJ Devil]

Because his job is to build the best team he can, not please Jesper Bratt and his representatives. I wanted Bratt on a long term deal, but I’m not scrapping plans to improve the roster to give him a deal that you can give him in a year’s time when you have a ton of space to do so.

Was Fitz supposed to just sit there with his thumb up his ass all offseason waiting for Bratt’s agent to respond? He made an offer, and proceeded with his plans. We now have added some solid pieces, plus have Bratt on a value deal while still having another year of RFA. If we want him long term and he wants to be here, the deal will be made next offseason.

Well if Bratt wanted to be here long-term the deal would have been done already. I get that as a fan the in-thing right now is for people to believe that Fitzgerald, for some reason, low-balled Bratt with a disrespectful number like he has never done anyone else on the team...

But also youre right, Fitz wasnt supposed to sit on his thumb. But what else he wasnt gonna do? Prevent Bratt from signing long-term if he wanted to. The offseason has a 10% escalator on the cap, and we easily could have fit Bratt in at 8m a year. Even if a move was needed before the season starts, thats what Fitz would have done (or when Bernier hits LTIR at seasons start). Hell, theres enough money today without an escalator to fit Bratt at 8.5m.

We dont need press clippings or leaked audio to see whats going on here. Bratt did not want term unless at a ridiculous number, because our GM hasnt shorted anyone else yet so why would he our best scorer last year? I understand that as a fan you always side with the players.... but its really evident this is on Bratt's side and not Fitzgerald.

Theres nothing wrong with Bratt wanting to get to UFA quicker; thats his contractual right as a player. But it doesnt mean we as fans have to lie to ourselves about whats going on. This is a shitty situation that likely ends with Jesper parting ways.

Him signing a long-term extension equal to or more than 5years after this season is extremely low and almost unprecedented in arbitration cases (and ones ended right before).

 

[devilsblood]

Well, first and foremost, no salary cap in Randy McKay's playing days. McKay was weird because he didn't even have his first season of more than 27 points until he was 30-31 and it was 48 points. That was also his first of only 2 seasons of hitting 20 or more goals. That was the first of 4 straight seasons where he would get at least 37 point and one of only two times that he would hit 40+ points. And after those 4 seasons he only played 2 more years and didn't even hit 20 points again.

I can't find ATOI from prior to the 98-99 season on hockey reference, but I'm willing to bet he played more minutes or at the very least got more power play time in those 4 seasons than he had prior to that. The crash line was the 4th line for a few years and they probably only played 10-12 minutes a night.

Randy McKay did really look terrible in his final season as a Devil and I'm glad he got shipped out as a throw-in to a huge trade, as he really seemed like a player when looking back on it that Lou would have kept around way too long.

So in the scenario i speak of wood’s contract would end before the age at which McKay broke out.

He needs to show his hip is ok but if he does that he is a player worth keeping.

 

[NJ Devil]

These aren’t cold hard facts

The cap not being an issue is a cold hard fact. Fitzgerald not purposely blocking Jesper from a deal with other signings is a fact. Jesper having been an issue twice now in negotiations is a fact.

Most of the facts point against Bratt and I can understand why fans dont want to see it that way. But really, theres no need to begin theory-crafting other ways for it to be so.. If you cant infer whats going on here then you havent followed many arbitration cases before

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Well if Bratt wanted to be here long-term the deal would have been done already. I get that as a fan the in-thing right now is for people to believe that Fitzgerald, for some reason, low-balled Bratt with a disrespectful number like he has never done anyone else on the team...

But also youre right, Fitz wasnt supposed to sit on his thumb. But what else he wasnt gonna do? Prevent Bratt from signing long-term if he wanted to. The offseason has a 10% escalator on the cap, and we easily could have fit Bratt in at 8m a year. Even if a move was needed before the season starts, thats what Fitz would have done (or when Bernier hits LTIR at seasons start). Hell, theres enough money today without an escalator to fit Bratt at 8.5m.

We dont need press clippings or leaked audio to see whats going on here. Bratt did not want term unless at a ridiculous number, because our GM hasnt shorted anyone else yet so why would he our best scorer last year? I understand that as a fan you always side with the players.... but its really evident this is on Bratt's side and not Fitzgerald.

Theres nothing wrong with Bratt wanting to get to UFA quicker; thats his contractual right as a player. But it doesnt mean we as fans have to lie to ourselves about whats going on. This is a shitty situation that likely ends with Jesper parting ways.

Him signing a long-term extension equal to or more than 5years after this season is extremely low and almost unprecedented in arbitration cases (and ones ended right before).

The crux of the problem. You’re blathering without knowing what was offered or what Bratt wanted. It obviously wasn’t satisfactory for Bratt’s camp so he decided to take a 1 year deal. Are you not seeing how Bratt having another year like last year makes Fitz more willing to give him a number closer to what his ask was?

All of your shit about likelihood of signing a deal and the supposedly damaged relationship is BS.

 

[glenwo2]

Lou was a dumbass for that.

Parise takes some blame too, he was stringing us along.

So is Bratt stringing us along?

 

[JimEIV]

I think this is true, most signs point to this being true, but what I don't understand was why he was going out of his way in the end of season interviews in 2010 saying ''I hope we sign him. I hope this wasn't his last game with us. I really hope we re-sign him because he can really help us''.

Obviously, it wouldn't be the first time a player spouted off bullshit to look politically correct and more classy, but it seemed unnecessary to really praise him and basically endorse his coming back if us retaining him really caused him to feel alienated and pushed him away.

Unless it was just the fact that Lou re-signed Kovalchuk before offering Parise a long term extension and he wasn't actually pissed that we brought Kovalchuk back as much he was pissed that he wasn't locked up first.

From my perspective, he still had another year left on his deal that offseason, so I don't know why he should have been a priority over a guy that was on the UFA market, whereas Parise had 2 more years of team control and still a whole season left until his contract was up.

And while the Devils didn't sign Kovalchuk until the middle of July (and that's not including all the bullshit and then it taking the whole summer before the actual contract went through), we legally couldn't have signed Parise to an extension until the same day Kovalchuk became a UFA.

If I remember right, they were pissed no offer came. I also remember there was talk about Parise wanting a 8x6 deal before he fired his agent...I just remembering thinking when he walked they could've locked him for 48 million in 2010 instead of playing Cap gimmicks all summer with Kovalchuk, the league and finally the arbitrator

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Lou was a dumbass for that.

Parise takes some blame too, he was stringing us along.

Once Kovy signed long term, the writing on the wall for Parise was there. Also we dodged a massive bullet with that, we got his best years and then didn't wind up paying him that insane contract, sucked for the short term but it was a win long term.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

The cap not being an issue is a cold hard fact. Fitzgerald not purposely blocking Jesper from a deal with other signings is a fact. Jesper having been an issue twice now in negotiations is a fact.

Most of the facts point against Bratt and I can understand why fans dont want to see it that way. But really, theres no need to begin theory-crafting other ways for it to be so.. If you cant infer whats going on here then you havent followed many arbitration cases before

These things aren’t facts. And stop calling a situation that didn’t go to arbitration an ‘arbitration case’.

 

[Nubmer6]

It's not the best outcome, but it's not the worst either. 2-4 year would have been worse. At least now they don't have to LTIR Bernier and/or unload some contracts. If they can get an extension done next year then this doesn't matter.

Actually, we do. Presuming Wood gets 3M and we have a 14th forward at around 1M, we're still over the cap.