Palat will provide leadership, mentoring, 2 cups worth of knowledge. All things Burak cant. Im ok with the signing. We have the cash to burn. As a GM, you NEED to show your team and fans you wont sit on your ass, Fitz had to do something, probably.

Palat isnt exciting like JG, but he's solid and reliable.

It seemed like last handul of yrs, Palat was always on the "trade block" His name was always thrown around, yet he wasnt moved and Tampa won and won. Thats not a coincidence. I think he'll provide great things that go un noticed on the scoresheet.
- Leniwm1

Yeah like i said, i like Palat as a player and hes definitely an upgrade to our top 6 and adds an element in both the locker room and on the ice that we dont have. Zacha played a ton of minutes on the wing in our top 6 and theres no doubt Palat is a much better and more consistent all-around player lol. If we signed him for 3 years i'd have absolutely zero issues with it. He's a good value right now(and projected to be for the first 2 years) while the team still isnt in their full-time competitive form. The issue is 3, 4, and 5 years from now we're expecting this team to be close to full form competitive and close to contending because Nico and Jack will be at or near their peaks, and during that time frame the likelihood is that Palat will have fallen off and will be providing negative value based to this team on his contract.

We see this time and time again in free agency, where older "good at the time of signing" players get too much term on a contract and next thing you know they regress hard(essentially fall off a cliff out of nowhere) and the contract becomes an anchor/cap issue for the team. This is more likely than not another one of those deals. I hope im wrong, but everything points to that. GMs just really never learn.

Yeah like i said, i like Palat as a player and hes definitely an upgrade to our top 6 and adds an element in both the locker room and on the ice that we dont have. Zacha played a ton of minutes on the wing in our top 6 and theres no doubt Palat is a much better and more consistent all-around player lol. If we signed him for 3 years i'd have absolutely zero issues with it. He's a good value right now(and projected to be for the first 2 years) while the team still isnt in their full-time competitive form. The issue is 3, 4, and 5 years from now we're expecting this team to be close to full form competitive and close to contending because Nico and Jack will be at or near their peaks, and during that time frame the likelihood is that Palat will have fallen off and will be providing negative value based to this team on his contract.

We see this time and time again in free agency, where older "good at the time of signing" players get too much term on a contract and next thing you know they regress hard(essentially fall off a cliff out of nowhere) and the contract becomes an anchor/cap issue for the team. This is more likely than not another one of those deals. I hope im wrong, but everything points to that. GMs just really never learn.
- vlongo4419

Ya I agree, though I dont think Fitz is done. I think he's gonna do something big, for a legit, top winger.

I never understood the "brings leadership" intangible aspect that people focus on so much. The people who are supposed to bring your team leadership are the coaches who are there to teach the players how to win. Having him on the team does make us better now, but will make us worse later. And we're not a team that is going to be able to seriously contend next year, which is the problem. If we were 1-2 pieces away from making a run, then sure go for it. The problem with this team is age and we're years out because our core group of players are years out from hitting their developmental peak.

Ya I agree, though I dont think Fitz is done. I think he's gonna do something big, for a legit, top winger.
- Leniwm1

Yeah for sure, i could see still him going for another true top line winger. Not sure who it could be, but if he did then i assume we would need to ship out AJ and/or Tatar. 17.4M in cap left and still need to account for Bratt(7?)/Boqvist(1-1.5?)/Wood(2-3?)/Vanecek(3-4?), so thats pretty much the rest of our cap without moving anybody else out. (Also doesnt include the potential to get an extra 4.125M in space if we LTIR Bernier at the start of the season)

Yeah for sure, i could see still him going for another true top line winger. Not sure who it could be, but if he did then i assume we would need to ship out AJ and/or Tatar. 17.4M in cap left and still need to account for Bratt(7?)/Boqvist(1-1.5?)/Wood(2-3?)/Vanecek(3-4?), so thats pretty much the rest of our cap without moving anybody else out. (Also doesnt include the potential to get an extra 4.125M in space if we LTIR Bernier at the start of the season)
- vlongo4419

Is Palat a done deal? Nothing on NHL.com

Is Palat a done deal? Nothing on NHL.com
- Leniwm1

I havent seen anything from the team yet making it "official". All of the insiders have said its done though, so i imagine at some point today they'll announce the details lol. I wanna know if theres any no-move/no-trade clauses and such.

I havent seen anything from the team yet making it "official". All of the insiders have said its done though, so i imagine at some point today they'll announce the details lol. I wanna know if theres any no-move/no-trade clauses and such.
- vlongo4419

Can you clarify RFA for me...

If an RFA doesn't sign with his team and receives no offer sheets, do his rights stay with the team indefinitely or does sitting out a year make them a FA the following?

I am just wondering if Bratt played in Europe instead, would we have his rights until he decides to come back?

Can you clarify RFA for me...

If an RFA doesn't sign with his team and receives no offer sheets, do his rights stay with the team indefinitely or does sitting out a year make them a FA the following?

I am just wondering if Bratt played in Europe instead, would we have his rights until he decides to come back?
- Leniwm1

If a team doesn't offer sheet their RFA that team loses their rights and they go into the free agent pool. When a team offersheets an RFA that player can accept the offer sheet which is a one year contract and something like +10% of the salary they last made.

We would retain Bratt's rights, and there is a deadline in which to sign RFAs (December 2nd or something). At some point though if the team and player don't negotiate a deal he can become a free agent again. It's something like multiple years of dispute has to occur.

Can you clarify RFA for me...

If an RFA doesn't sign with his team and receives no offer sheets, do his rights stay with the team indefinitely or does sitting out a year make them a FA the following?

I am just wondering if Bratt played in Europe instead, would we have his rights until he decides to come back?
- Leniwm1

So when it comes to an RFA, since we qualified Bratt we own his rights(if we didnt qualify him then he wouldve become a UFA). He is eligible to talk to other teams about an offer sheet and if he decides to sign one then we have 7 days to either match it or let him go and take the compensation. If he doesn't sign an offer sheet he remains Devils property as they try to work out a deal, and if he doesn't sign with the Devils by December 1st(or whatever the new date is with the later schedule) then he cannot play for the remainder of this season even if he ends up signing after that date. He will still remain an RFA if this happens so it's not like we would be ask risk of him just holding out to become a UFA.

I highly doubt it ever gets to that point though like Will Nylander a few years ago. He'd be signed or traded well before it gets to that point(I would hope lol)

Bratt needs to play 2 more years to become a UFA(either 7 accrued seasons, 27 years of age on June 30th of the contract expiry year, or not being qualified is how you are eligible to be a UFA), so if he decided to just take his qualifying offer and play on 1 year deal then he'd still be an RFA and be in the same exact spot next summer. Doesn't sound like this is going to be the case, he wants to be here and Fitz/ownership view him as a big part of the future. His agent is just being a douche lol

We currently only have three players signed in Palat's last contract year (Jack, Nico, Dougie). That number will seemingly rise soon assuming Bratt signs relatively long term. That'll be five total contracts at that point in time and most importantly - it'll be our most important players locked into their number with plenty of ELC's and younger, less expensive contracts still relevant at that juncture. I'm not overly worried about Palat's deal specifically being an issue - it'll be if we make a mistake on top of the Palat deal that will hurt us.

By signing a contact like Palat's, Fitz has given himself less wiggle room to make a mistake (if that makes sense). We're in such great shape right now and moving forward cap wise that we had room for a Palat scenario, but now that it exists, it's on Fitz to navigate our transactions a bit more tightly and make sure to keep flexibility as long as possible.

Additionally, the beauty of Luke staying an additional year at Michigan is that he's seemingly going to be a massive part of our team from the day he steps foot on NHL ice and we'll have three clean ELC years. That means he'd be due "bigger" money on the last year of Palat's deal; not entirely a massive issue considering it's one year and we can navigate that problem when if it arises.

Others like Nemec and Shakir should undeniably keep our D's cap number down during that time period, which is where a lot of teams overpay for the lower half of their D pairings. Eventually, it seems we'll have cap problems but that goes for any good, competing team. The positive is that barring a really bad move, Palat's deal shouldn't be as much of an issue as many might initially think.

The Nucks are supposedly looking to move JT Miller for cap space. If he can commit to wing, we should be doing whatever we can to bring him in. He’d be a huge boon to our offense.

The rangers can’t land both Miller AND Patty Kane. I’m guessing they’d rather have Kaner, so to Miller, why not come here?

The Nucks are supposedly looking to move JT Miller for cap space. If he can commit to wing, we should be doing whatever we can to bring him in. He’d be a huge boon to our offense.

The rangers can’t land both Miller AND Patty Kane. I’m guessing they’d rather have Kaner, so to Miller, why not come here?
- jtylerm

If we're sending minimal to no assets back for Miller you do that everyday.

If we're sending minimal to no assets back for Miller you do that everyday.
- Pomegrant

You’re not getting a 99 point player for minimal assets. I don’t think it would some insane package like giving up all Nico/Jack/Luke/Nemec/Bratt/Holtz and 35 first round picks to get Miller. There’s a sensible trade to be made there if Miller is open to NJ.

You’re not getting a 99 point player for minimal assets. I don’t think it would some insane package like giving up all Nico/Jack/Luke/Nemec/Bratt/Holtz and 35 first round picks to get Miller. There’s a sensible trade to be made there if Miller is open to NJ.
- jtylerm

Carolina got Pacioretty for futures. If Canucks really want to clear cap space they can.

Carolina got Pacioretty for futures. If Canucks really want to clear cap space they can.
- Pomegrant

That trade still baffles me

Devils have signed Simon Nemec to his ELC.

Well, Jesper Bratts price is going up day-by-day here. Blues signing Thomas and now the Sens signing Norris to essentially 8x8 contracts, and Bratt is better than both...

Well, Jesper Bratts price is going up day-by-day here. Blues signing Thomas and now the Sens signing Norris to essentially 8x8 contracts, and Bratt is better than both...
- vlongo4419

Bratt average .66 pts
Jack average .65 pts

Does this mean he is asking Jack money? It looks like he should if they are similar. Though not sure how I feel about it, even if it is fair.

Bratt average .66 pts
Jack average .65 pts

Does this mean he is asking Jack money? It looks like he should if they are similar. Though not sure how I feel about it, even if it is fair.
- Leniwm1

His agent absolutely should ask for that, but I highly doubt Fitz gives it to him. I don't think Fitz even wants to give him more than Nico money

His agent absolutely should ask for that, but I highly doubt Fitz gives it to him. I don't think Fitz even wants to give him more than Nico money
- vlongo4419

We all love Bratt. He was a 6th round pick that forced the devils to sign him. Hes gotten better every year. Maybe he is our Zetterberg, maybe we dont need to splurge on a superstar winger from another team?

If Holtz steps in right away, id be okay giving Bratt 8-9 over 8 yrs, assuming Bratts trajectory is pointing in the right direction.

You are better at analyzing the stats, is his pt production from last year sustainable or was if a fluke?

This will go down as the greatest off-season in New Jersey devils history

This will go down as the greatest off-season in New Jersey devils history
- shvingter88

It can't be better than the year we got Mike Camilleri and Ryan Clowe.

5 years at $6 million per for Palat? I get his playoffness is great but you gotta extend Bratt and then extend Sharangovich and Siegenthaler next year. I don’t think we are in the market for a top line wing anymore and kiss Severson and Graves goodbye.

Fitz better have hit it out of the park on Nemec and better pray Holtz is a top 6 wing or we can hit the reset button on the rebuild…again.

It can't be better than the year we got Mike Camilleri and Ryan Clowe.
- Pomegrant

Don’t dare disrespect the Michael Ryder/Damien Brunner off-season.

5 years at $6 million per for Palat? I get his playoffness is great but you gotta extend Bratt and then extend Sharangovich and Siegenthaler next year. I don’t think we are in the market for a top line wing anymore and kiss Severson and Graves goodbye.

He better have hit it out of the park on Nemec and better pray Holtz is a top 6 wing or we can hit the reset button on the rebuild…again.
- smellmyfinger

It doesn't mean Severson and Graves are gone for sure. We can re-sign everybody next offseason no problem but this definitely impacts our flexibility and ability to get a true game changing winger without moving some money out. We can go completely to the cap ceiling this season and still have slightly over 31M in cap next offseason, which is plenty to re-sign everybody if Fitz chooses to do so.

2 years too long on this deal though for sure, but the hope/saving grace is the cap actually significantly increasing in 3 years like its rumored to which would definitely mitigate the final 2 years of this deal.(if the cap doesnt increase like everybody in expecting then this is going to be a big problem.) It's a good addition for the next 2 or 3 years though.