The Devils have avoided Friday's arbitration hearing and re-signed restricted free agent center Travis Zajac to a four-year contract worth a total of $15.55 million
Zajac said it is a four-year deal, but would not divulge any other details of the contract.
Zajac, 24, is coming off a breakout season in which he posted career-highs with 20 goals, 42 assists, 62 points and a team-best plus-33 defensive rating.
"He's developed into a core player and getting him long-term I think is good for both him and his growth and for the organization," Lamoriello told me this morning.
Only Monday, Lamoriello said he it appeared as if the sides were headed to an arbitration hearing on Friday in Toronto, but these things have a way of working themselves out in the final days before the hearing and they reached adn agreement late Tuesday night.
"There was some movement on both sides," Lamoriello said.
Lamoriello said he was not worried about going to arbitration, but admitted that sometimes feeling can get hurt during the process. Avoiding that is a positive.
"There's been very good dialogue throughout the process," Lamoriello said. "We didn't come to an agreement until very late (Tuesday) night, but if we had to go to arbitration we were ready to go. All of our briefs were done. Arbitration isn't something to me that I was worried about. I've always said, 'If you tell the truth, you can't worry.' But, unfortunately, when you tell something in arbitration, it's usually what the player has already heard, but it becomes public and there's sensitivities and they're never recovered."
With Zajac now locked up, does that mean Lamoriello will turn his focus to re-signing Brendan Shanahan?
"We'll work on everything at the same time," Lamoriello said. "We'll make our team better in any way we can."
YAY!!!
Posted by: Rob | July 22, 2009 at 10:07 AM
f'n right. best news of the day.
Posted by: LucasS | July 22, 2009 at 10:10 AM
niiiiiice!
Posted by: John | July 22, 2009 at 10:10 AM
!!!! :)
Posted by: Good God | July 22, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Great news. Interested to see the terms.
Posted by: Maxwell Is An Animal | July 22, 2009 at 10:12 AM
WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lou has done this before.....signed core kind of players before sittin' at the arbitor's table
Posted by: njteech | July 22, 2009 at 10:15 AM
I'm going to say 5 yrs, cap hit of $3.5M - probably escalating salaries like Parise's contract.
Posted by: Pat | July 22, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Excellent! Now it's Shanny's turn.
Posted by: Shanafan | July 22, 2009 at 10:18 AM
I'm going to say 4 years, $4M in '09, $4M in '10, $3.5 in '11, $3 in '12. Average cap hit $3.625M.
Posted by: Dennis | July 22, 2009 at 10:18 AM
$984,200.00 Per year is what the NHLPA is reporting
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 10:20 AM
That can't be right, can it? but earlier today it still said he was unsigned...
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 10:21 AM
That was last year's number, wasn't it? It still has Shanahan at $800K.
Posted by: Dennis | July 22, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Great, TG, now I have to keep hitting refresh all day. Hopefully, you can find this out quickly! LOL!
Posted by: Dennis | July 22, 2009 at 10:23 AM
That was his old salary scratch.
I'm guessing 4 years with a $3M cap hit per, escalating from $2.5M and ending at $4M.
Posted by: RG | July 22, 2009 at 10:23 AM
The NHLPa site has got to be all wrong...they got Greene and PL3 as unsigned still...but I swear Zajac said unsigned about an hour ago
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 10:24 AM
I'm guessing four years with an average cap hit of $2.75M, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5.
Posted by: RNCDevil | July 22, 2009 at 10:27 AM
WOW awesome....im not getting to excited until i hear the terms though....hopefully an average cap hit of 3.5-3.75 at most....hopefully escelating so its more cap friendly and hopefully long enough that he and parise will be together for a long long time
Posted by: Mhowitzer | July 22, 2009 at 10:28 AM
That's Zajac's old salary.
Posted by: TG | July 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM
I agree with RG. It will probably look a lot like the Parise deal. Probably 3 years.
Posted by: KB | July 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM
its going to take us a while to find out the terms of the deal. Im ok with only a two year signing as well. He will still be Restricted after that. I wish they signed Pikachu and Murphy to two year deals...atlest a club option. If they are awesome.. we could lose them very easily.
Posted by: mikeschoenf | July 22, 2009 at 10:30 AM
im guessing its a 4 or 5 year deal as the devils website specifically says a "long term deal"
Posted by: Mhowitzer | July 22, 2009 at 10:32 AM
I know it must be wrong guys, but I just want you to see what NHLPA site says:
Position: Centre
Team: New Jersey Devils
Conference: Eastern Conference
Division: Atlantic Division
Shoots: Right
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 205
Birth Date: 5/13/1985
Birth Country: Canada, Winnipeg
Year Drafted: 2004
Round Drafted: 1
Overall Choice: 20
09/10 Compensation: $984,200.00
See?? It says 09/10 compensation...and it's new...got to be wrong, but if it isn't, kudos to Lou on a great deal..
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 10:33 AM
According to NHLNUMBERS.com, that was his salary last year.....
Posted by: Mark | July 22, 2009 at 10:36 AM
I guess they got the news that he had re-signed and just posted the old salary until they get word of the new terms...They should just leave it blank though if that's the case.
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Lou... got er' done? Wow. Good stuff! Now we can stop disliking Travis again.... :D
Posted by: kstatik | July 22, 2009 at 10:39 AM