After a long contract negotiation with the Devils finally reached an end late Tuesday night, center Travis Zajac can now look forward to the 2009-10 season -- and his wedding coming up next month in Winnipeg rather than worry about an arbitration hearing on Friday.
Zajac signed a four-year contract for a total of $15.55 million or an average -- and cap hit of -- $3,887,500. The new deal pays him $2.75 million in 2009-10, $3.5 million in 2010-11, $4.5 million in 2011-12 and $4.8 million in 2012-13.
His average salary is the fourth highest on the Devils behind only Patrik Elias ($6 million cap hit), Martin Brodeur ($5.2 million) and Brian Rolston ($5.062 million).
Last season, Zajac made $984,200.
"I'm glad we got a deal done and I'm excited," Zajac told me this morning.
Zajac said that both sides wanted a longer-term deal.
"I think we both were in the same ballpark for the term of the deal," he said. "I'm happy to be with the Devils for four years and I'm excited about the team next year and the coach and ready to go."
Zajac wasn't sure what to expect from the arbitration hearing.
"You don't want to (go to arbitration)," he said. "It's sort of a last option. I really didn't know what was going to happen, but I'm just glad we were able to come to terms and now I can get ready for this new year."
Zajac claimed there was no particular roadblock in the negotiations.
"It was more just that we wanted to be comfortable with the deal along with the Devils," he said. "We did get something done that we're both comfortable with and we're excited for the future."
Zajac was pleased with the way he bounced back in 2008-09 after struggling through his second year in the NHL.
"I think I had a good year," he said. "There's still a lot of room for improvement. After my second year, I learned a lot. I realized how hard you have to compete and work to be successful. After that second year, I've had the right attitude. I've worked hard and all I want to do is learn and get better and try and become a better player. Right now, we have a great group of guys. We've got a great mix of young guys and draft picks that are great players and we have some core guys, veteran guys that are in the locker room. So, it's a great mix and it's going to be an exciting team this year."
With veterans such as Brian Gionta and John Madden moving on via free agency, there is room for younger players such as Zajac, 24, to move up into leadership roles. He welcomes that opportunity.
"I'm definitely capable of being a leader," he said. "I'm building towards that. I want to be a guy that can help out the younger guys or say something in the locker room. I've learned from a lot of the older guys here that have won before and I've still got some things to learn, but I'm ready to take that next step to become more of a leader."
Former Devils coach Brent Sutter pushed Zajac hard during the 2007-08 season to become a better player and it paid off in 2008-09. Zajac appreciates what Sutter did for him, but is also looking forward to playing for new head coach Jacques Lemaire.
"Obviously, the situation wasn't great for (Sutter) and his family and that comes first," Zajac said. "It's tough to see him go, but I'm happy that he's still able to coach and be part of the NHL. I'm sure he loves that. I learned a lot from him, but, with that said, I'm excited about Jacques coming in. He's been in the league for a while. He's won before. I'm looking forward to learning some new things from him."
{THE END}
Great news. Hopefuly Zajac can develop further after the impressive season he had last year and help the Devils for years to come. I am sure Parise is also happy to hear of this signing.
Posted by: Zavior | July 22, 2009 at 12:57 PM
This is great and made my day , only bad thing is that our greatest signing of the offseason so far is a player we already had!
Posted by: MTLsDevils | July 22, 2009 at 01:02 PM
well as of yesterday the best signing we had was oduya so at least this is a step in the right direction
Posted by: Mhowitzer | July 22, 2009 at 01:08 PM
I don't get it, why sign him for 4 years? If we did 2 he would still be an RFA when all is done with right? Then we would get 2 more years to see if he's the real deal, and we could sign him for like 6 more for a reasonable amount, or if we don't want him, we could get compensation. Now he will be a 28 year old UFA and he is going to be offered some insane contract and we won't get him. In my humble opinion we should have done a 2 year deal, or some freak 10 year deal that doesn't cost too much in a cap hit, the 2 year deal making much more sense. What am I missing?
Posted by: george | July 22, 2009 at 01:11 PM
I only see Zajac quotes...
Posted by: Maxwell | July 22, 2009 at 01:18 PM
go to the prior post
Posted by: Pat | July 22, 2009 at 01:19 PM
first of all you only give out 10 year deals to superstars,like Parise, of course unless you are Charles Wang...
By signing TZ to a 4 year deal the cap hit per year might be more now but would look very good by the 4th year, plus it's one less worry for the forwards for the next 4 years. If you only sign him for 2 years and he has to very good years then he'll have to be signed for a lot more in his last year as an RFA
Posted by: mikeP | July 22, 2009 at 01:21 PM
We need to sign him for 4 years. I doubt Lou got talked in to a NTC. We have a plethora of goood talent coming up (finally)...
Posted by: RickyM2 | July 22, 2009 at 01:21 PM
Good to see Zajac coming back. I can't believe he's getting married, he's so young.
Posted by: Pat D | July 22, 2009 at 01:22 PM
first of all, i don't think a 10 year deal would be that great, but I wouldn't say only Wang does it. Look at Philly, they have Mike Richards locked up for just 5.75 million, that's a pretty good deal. Detroit did it as well, they have Franzen locked up at less than a 4 million cap hit. Obviously there is risk involved, but I think the key is to reduce cap hit as much as possible. But anyway, I like a 2 year deal. I can't believe that it would be harder to resign him for as low as possible after 2 years when he is RFA than after 4 years as a UFA. Isn't it much harder to lose an RFA than a UFA?
Posted by: george | July 22, 2009 at 01:34 PM
It's a solid length, I would have liked 5 or 6 years but I'll take this over arbitration. I like his quotes too, sounds real positive
Posted by: Ben | July 22, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Also, the Current CBA will be expiring in 2 years I think. There's no telling what will happen when they start negotiating a new one. The owners might push to raise the age of UFA to keep themselves from spending big bucks on more players? It's stetch, I know, but the point is, a 2 year deal would have been OK but if there was another lockout, he's become an UFA before we had a chance to really re-sign him. I would have liked 5 but 4 is still good and will aslo help when time comes to re-sign Zach in 2 years.
Posted by: Mark | July 22, 2009 at 01:43 PM
@George: Let's say he signed for 2 years... He would be a group 2 free agent with 1 year to go before being UFA. Who knows what would happen? If he and Lou could not get to an agreement, he would go to arbitration and become a UFA the next year. At least with a 4 year deal, you are buying out 1 of his UFA years. If Lou really feels he is that important to the team, he'll show him the money, just like he did for Elias.
Posted by: frankied | July 22, 2009 at 01:48 PM
I doubt there will be a lock out, players already agreed to the Cap and it is working well. When it comes to CBAs in sports the big issue is always the Cap, smaller problems generally won't lead to strikes and such. Since the Cap, team spending has gone up from 39 million to 56 million, it's working well for owners and players.
Posted by: george | July 22, 2009 at 01:51 PM
I'm glad it wasn't a 2 year deal. I 2 years Lou will have his hands full trying to resign/replace Langenbrunner, Parise, Pandolfo, Halischuk and Greene...it would not have been a good idea to add TZ to that list
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:01 PM
* In 2 years
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:02 PM
Scratch, i think realistically, we don't have to worry about signing Pandolfo.. as for Halischuk and Greene, Halischuk will be RFA, so again no worries, and Greene, well lets see what he does if he would even warrant worring about resigning.
The only worries would be Langs and Zach, and i think Zach is RFA too
Posted by: Pearl Jammed | July 22, 2009 at 02:28 PM
PJ, that's why I said resign/ REPLACE...OH who cares!
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:32 PM
I think with a 2 year deal, it's like we got him for 2 years and we have a great shot a resigning him long term after that or at least getting some kind of compensation if we don't. With a 4 year deal, it's like we got him for 4 years, and then some team like the Rangers will offer him 6 million per year and we will never pay him that and we will get zero compensation.
Posted by: george | July 22, 2009 at 02:32 PM
Either way PJ, you wanna be in a position to have to give Langs, Parise and Zajac contracts in the same year? I think Lou did the right thing by giving him 4 years...
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:33 PM
Well George, there must be some reason why Lou is going to the HHOF, let's have some faith in the guy
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:36 PM
Lou's the best but the cold war is over. why the KGB mentality. WHAT IS THE CAP HIT
Posted by: arthur agostini | July 22, 2009 at 02:36 PM
@George, you make it sound like we automatically get compensation if we don't re-sign him after the theoretical 2-year contract. There's only compensation if another team signs him to an offer sheet and we choose not to match. Being that no offer sheets have been made in the past few years other than from Kevin Lowe, that is unlikely. The more likely scenario would be that he would go to arbitration, get a 1-year settlement, get his feelings hurt, and not even give us a chance to re-sign him when he becomes UFA the following year. The brilliance of going more than 2-years is that we will never have to go through this arbitration stuff with him ever again. The brilliance of going more than 3 years is that we delayed his becoming UFA by 1 year.
Posted by: frankied | July 22, 2009 at 02:45 PM
Per andy strickland the blues are trying to trade for a depth dman, and want to part with dj king or cam train janssen as part of it. Bring Cam back lou. Lol!!
Posted by: nnjrules | July 22, 2009 at 02:48 PM
Cam Janssen, just what we need...
Posted by: Scratch | July 22, 2009 at 02:52 PM