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Bratt's Contract / Timo's Arbitration / Free Agency: UFAs - Erik Haula |
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Thoughts on Bratt's Contract and Timo's Arbitration / Free Agency: UFAs - Erik Haula
Good morning Devils nation. We had huge news come out this week regarding the resigning of Jesper Bratt. One of the biggest storylines of this offseason, Jesper Bratt’s contract was a major goal for GM Tom Fitzgerald over the summer. Bratt was coming off a banner regular season for himself 73 points in 81 games while a decent if not criticized playoffs with 6 points in 11 games. Debates over whether to pay him $8M or more were pretty rampant throughout most Devils online communities with the consensus being that either he took less than that or should be traded. Luckily, Fitz was able to convince him to sign an 8 year contract for $63M, averaging $7.875M in cap every year until 2031, per CapFriendly. In addition, he will receive yearly bonuses which can total up to $5M a year in some cases. This move will start to shore up our top 6 with room for TImo Meier and possibly other pieces to be added. Great move by Fitz in my opinion.
Meanwhile, on the subject of Meier, the Devils opted to go through arbitration regarding Timo’s new contract. Hopefully, this is just a formality due to the fact that there’s a deadline to make a move like this with a RFA player. It gives them time to continue negotiations for a long term deal. The good news is that according to multiple sources, Meier is interested in staying long term with the Devils, looking for an 8 year contract. It would be amazing to keep the top 6 of Hughes/Hischier/Bratt/Meier/Palat together for such a long time. If we can make this happen with a sub $9M contract for him, that would be great. But he is a very good player. Time will tell.
Now that we are wrapped up with RFAs, we can take a look at UFAs. The stakes for these situations are a bit different. The Devils will have less authority over this since these players hit the open market. We have to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of bringing a player back with the possibility that valuable UFAs could get us in a bidding war.
Here are the UFAs currently on the Devils’ roster:
Offense:
Erik Haula
Tomas Tatar
Miles Wood
Defense:
Ryan Graves
Goaltending:
Jonathan Bernier
Potential Leftover Cap - $12,532,500
Our first UFA to discuss is:
Erik Haula
Fun Fact: Haula comes from Pori, Finland. A coastal city, it has some interesting tidbits. First, it has burned down 9 times due to most construction being primarily wood. Additionally, it hosts a Jazz Festival, one of the largest in Europe and the biggest in Finland. Also, while he was a Bruin, Haula shared a bear logo on his jersey with a similar emblem on his city’s flag and coat of arms as Pori is known as the “Bear City.” For fun, I did look through the other coat of arms for Finland municipalities to find if there was a Devil themed one. Alas, there was not. I did find an angry horse wielding a scythe on one of them. That was pretty cool.
Player Profile and Season Storyline:
Drafted in the 7th Round of 2009 by Minnesota, Erik Haula has had quite a journey. After breaking into the NHL, he was selected by Vegas in the expansion draft. Following solid seasons there, he experienced injuries and played limited time, eventually being dealt to the Hurricanes in exchange for Nicolas Roy and a conditional 5th. Following another knee injury, Haula was traded to Florida as part of the Vincent Trocheck deal, signed as a free agent to Nashville, did this again with Boston, and was traded to us in exchange for Pavel Zacha. Since becoming a Devil, Haula has solidified a role for himself as a mid-6 center while playing the combos of Bratt-Haula-Hughes and Hughes-Haula-Mercer for a majority of the season. According to Money Puck, the Hughes-Haula-Mercer line was second only to Tatar-Hischier-Mercer in goal scoring. Haula has shown versatility and flexibility with linemates and provides a ton of veteran leadership and playoff experience, only missing the playoffs twice in his NHL tenure. Furthermore, I want to give him credit for going on the ice during the last game in the Devils’ streak early on in the season and trying to calm down fans who were throwing garbage on the rink. He’s also gone on record as saying he wants to play in NJ and enjoys the core Fitzgerald is building.
Stat Analysis:
This season, Erik Haula went 14G-27A-41P in an 80 game regular season while he had a solid postseason with 4G-2A-6P in 12 games. Additionally, per Hockey Reference, he played a physical game with 92 hits and 54 shots blocked. He was 2nd in the team with short handed goals, 3rd in face off wins, and 2nd in faceoff win percentage.
Benefits and Drawbacks for Bringing Back:
Benefits - Strong, consistent, and productive veteran with years of playoff experience and interest with staying.
Drawbacks - Has attributes that may be valuable to other teams, leading to a minor bidding war for leadership.
Should we keep him:
Verdict - Keep. In my mind, Haula has more than earned his spot on the team next year and, pending a reasonable contract, I would love to see him retire as a Devil with hopefully a ring to show for it.
Comparable Contracts
Erik Haula is 32 with 41 points in 80 games and is coming off of a $2.375M contract. Looking at those factors, here are some comparable contracts:
Adam Lowry, WPG - $3.250M
Nic Dowd, WSH - $1.3M
Frédérick Gaudreau, MIN - $2.1M
With a range of $1M - $3.5M, I would aim for a contract of $2M with some possible bonuses to offset the interest and possible bids from other teams.
That leaves our cap situation as:
Potential Leftover Cap - $10,532,500
Leave your thoughts or comments below. Raise Hell!
-Josh Biringer
New Jersey Devils Blogger • 
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