Confirmed Signing with Link: [NJD] F Ondrej Palat signs with the Devils (5 years, $6M AAV)

[racamdim]

This is pretty bad. Palat will be worth it the first 2-3 years... but New Jersey will be at best a playoff contender.

This is the type of contract you'd expect Pittsburgh or Washington to hand out for their last hurrah, not an up and coming team like New Jersey. This also makes Perron's contract even more baffling.

The Devils have one of the best cap situations in the league -- not just in space available, but they literally have no bad contracts going forward. So even if the Palat deal is a "bad" one in a vacuum, it will have absolutely no impact on the Devils' flexibility over its lifespan. As it currently stands, the Devils' next cap crunch will come when Luke Hughes and Nemec come off their ELC's (assuming -- as I do -- they both hit).

 

[Devils090]

Oof. Should have paid more and go for Gaudreau.

Gaudreau didn’t want to play for NJ

 

[Kimota]

Gaudreau didn’t want to play for NJ

Really? I thought he wanted to go back home.

 

[PAZ]

The Devils have one of the best cap situations in the league -- not just in space available, but they literally have no bad contracts going forward. So even if the Palat deal is a "bad" one in a vacuum, it will have absolutely no impact on the Devils' flexibility over its lifespan. As it currently stands, the Devils' next cap crunch will come when Luke Hughes and Nemec come off their ELC's (assuming -- as I do -- they both hit).

People keep saying this, but things change in a moments notice, and in a cap world one bad contract can be the difference between winning the cup or not. The Avs went from bottom of the basement to winning the cup in 5 years. Rangers went from picking 1st and 2nd in consecutive years to being a cup contender and cap crunch.

 

[jetsforever]

Priced himself out of Tampa but not too bad for NJ

 

[SKNJD9]

Really? I thought he wanted to go back home.

Salem NJ is a different world compared to northern NJ, North Jersey really wouldnt resemble home very much to him.

We have some really nice suburbs but you're still close to metro NYC ( jersey city, hoboken etc ) seems he didn't want that.

 

[Devils090]

Really? I thought he wanted to go back home.

His hometown is basically in Delaware, he grew up nowhere close to Newark. In fact he was basically the same distance from DC as he was to Newark. Down in south Jersey it’s basically one big Philly suburb, JG had no connection to the Devils.

And it was never about playing at home, it was just not being all the way in Alberta anymore.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Palat is a good player and could definitely be worth it. The thing I worry about with these types of deals is if the team remains uncompetitive vets like him have a tendency to start phoning it in. He's got the bag, he's got the cups, his give a shit meter might start waning sooner rather than later if the team doesn't become competitive.

Jersey has a lot of the pieces in place to take a step, need a coach to put em together.

 

[racamdim]

People keep saying this, but things change in a moments notice, and in a cap world one bad contract can be the difference between winning the cup or not. The Avs went from bottom of the basement to winning the cup in 5 years. Rangers went from picking 1st and 2nd in consecutive years to being a cup contender and cap crunch.

Things only change if you make a stupid/crippling decision. That is a management issue more than a cap one. If you want to win the Cup, you almost certainly have to be near the cap. The difference between a contender and a cap-strapped also-ran is whether the players the GM opted to invest in were the right ones. Whether NJ will choose wisely or poorly remains an open question that -- given their cap situation now -- they still have complete flexibility to answer however they wish regardless of the Palat deal. And that's the point.

 

[Dominance]

I wanted him on the Pens but…good lord that’s a lot for a 31 year old who has put up seasons of 0.63, 0.84, 0.59, 0.53, and 0.63 in the last five years while playing beside Stamkos and Kucherov.

 

[Kimota]

His hometown is basically in Delaware, he grew up nowhere close to Newark. In fact he was basically the same distance from DC as he was to Newark. Down in south Jersey it’s basically one big Philly suburb, JG had no connection to the Devils.

And it was never about playing at home, it was just not being all the way in Alberta anymore

He said this?

 

[Forge]

This is pretty bad. Palat will be worth it the first 2-3 years... but New Jersey will be at best a playoff contender.

This is the type of contract you'd expect Pittsburgh or Washington to hand out for their last hurrah, not an up and coming team like New Jersey. This also makes Perron's contract even more baffling.

If we can get three years of quality play from him on this deal, I'd be ecstatic. Still a bad contract, but depending on structure, that likely means you only have one rough cap year (year 4 when he hits the wall and you're doing the 13th forward thing with him and hopefully the cap is up) then you can buy out or trade.

Realistically I'm thinking two good, hit the wall, and then figuring out how to get out from under two years on the back end, which is not as easy and taking to be more expensive. Structure of the deal will be important

If we get two, carry him the third year when he hits the wall,

 

[SoundAndFury]

He’s a fragile guy who plays 70-80% of the season at best , his production has been mediocre alongside elite offensive players. I guess it comes down to “intangibles” and strong post season play

Undoubtedly Palat is being paid extra for locker room presence, winning, intangibles and whatnot. But it's not like he is massively overpaid or the Devils can't afford it. It's not a big deal.

Also he has been a consistently ~0.7 PPG player throughout his career and if you add his regular and post-season numbers together he had, look at that, 70 points in 100 games this season. Which is pretty much perfectly in line with the career average. "15 goal 45 point player" is just you moving the goalposts.

 

[Hisch13r]

I hate this f***ing team.

 

[SKNJD9]

Palat is a good player and could definitely be worth it. The thing I worry about with these types of deals is if the team remains uncompetitive vets like him have a tendency to start phoning it in. He's got the bag, he's got the cups, his give a shit meter might start waning sooner rather than later if the team doesn't become competitive.

Jersey has a lot of the pieces in place to take a step, need a coach to put em together.

Bringing Burnette in as associate coach ( per Weekes ) is a big step. He'll likely take over next season even if this season goes well.

 

[PostBradMalone]

Palat's not a bad pickup but he is more the final piece for a young team that has everything else. The Devils still need a finisher for Hughes' line by my eye to do serious damage, though maybe Holtz can provide that this year.

 

[VanillaCoke]

This isn't going to age well prob less than a year. Rough day in NJ

 

[SKNJD9]

I hate this f***ing team.

Theres the door...

 

[Devils090]

He said this?

He said family was the main reason he wasn’t going back to Calgary and he signed for a team that’s an 8 hour drive from home for a lot less money than Calgary offered yeah so not really hard to connect the dots here.

 

[Chuck Norris Trophy]

Panic move.

 

[Devils090]

Panic move.

Devils were in on Palat from the get go, stop with this

 

[Xirik]

So basically if we get to the Playoffs then Palat will win us the Stanley Cup.

I like it...

 

[Kimota]

He said family was the main reason he wasn’t going back to Calgary and he signed for a team that’s an 8 hour drive from home for a lot less money than Calgary offered yeah so not really hard to connect the dots here.

Or he just wanted out no matter what. Why not signing with NJ and be even closer?

 

[bleedgreen]

Or he just wanted out no matter what.

I read at one point today he left money on the table to choose cbus over NJ. He clearly didn’t feel NJ was home.

 

[Devils090]

Or he just wanted out no matter what. Why not signing with NJ and be even closer?

Again, he didn’t want to play in NJ. He wanted Philly, they couldn’t make it work so he picked Columbus