The New Jersey Devils and pending restricted free agent winger Jesper Bratt have agreed to terms on a massive eight-year deal worth $7.875MM per season, the team announced Thursday afternoon. The contract, which will see Bratt stay in New Jersey until 2031 and carries a total value of $63MM, breaks down as follows:
2023-24: $10MM salary
2024-25: $9MM salary
2025-26: $9MM salary
2026-27: $8MM salary
2027-28: $7.2MM salary
2028-29: $7.2MM salary
2029-30: $6.6MM salary
2030-31: $6MM salary
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski also reports the contract carries some form of trade protection. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports half of the above breakdown is paid out in signing bonuses.
The deal opens up what will be a pivotal offseason in New Jersey. After winning their first playoff series in 11 years, the Devils ended their season without extensions for both Bratt and trade deadline acquisition Timo Meier, who were both RFAs eligible for arbitration. With many more players to re-sign, especially at the bottom of their forward lineup, CapFriendly projects the Devils still have $26.4MM in cap space for next season.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald offered a statement on the monumental deal for both Bratt and the team:
It was always a priority to keep Jesper Bratt here long term and both parties are thrilled that a deal was completed. I value and commend the commitment Jesper made to this organization. We believe that he is a special player and a key member of our core group of talent who will contribute towards the team’s long-term success, and organizational goal of bringing the Stanley Cup back to New Jersey.
Most didn’t expect negotiations between Bratt and the Devils to be smooth sailing. Last offseason, Bratt was also an RFA and nearly required an arbitration hearing to get a new deal signed. The two parties eventually settled on a one-year, $5.45MM deal days before the hearing.
That being said, a deal of this magnitude has been a long time coming. The Devils reportedly started negotiations with Bratt as far back as last November, and after a second consecutive 70-point campaign from the Swedish winger in 2022-23, the team was comfortable committing the maximum term.
Bratt’s deal carries the same average annual value and just one less year of term than Los Angeles Kings winger Kevin Fiala, who signed an extension after being traded from the Minnesota Wild last June. Fiala had recorded 85 points in 82 games that season after a pair of seasons that came in close to the point-per-game mark.
Given Bratt’s similar scoring pace over the past pair of seasons, it’s hard to argue the deal is above market value. He’ll be in his early 30s when the deal expires, so the past few seasons shouldn’t age poorly if he continues his progression.
Bratt drew some ire from Devils fans after a disappointing playoff performance, registering a single goal and just six points in 12 games. He’s posted numbers reflective of a true top-line winger over the past two campaigns, though, and it should be a fair bet that the 5-foot-10 Swede can maintain that level of production. Advanced offensive metrics have been kind to him since his breakout 26-goal, 73-point campaign in 2021-22.
The Devils have already gotten way more value than initially expected out of Bratt, who fell to the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft. He was in the NHL just two seasons after his draft year, scoring 35 points in 74 games during his rookie season in 2017-18. In 389 games as a Devil overall, Bratt’s totaled 102 goals and 174 assists for 276 points.
He’s now the team’s third-highest-paid player and second-highest-paid forward. His cap hit comes in at $625,000 more than that of captain Nico Hischier, who’s locked in at a $7.25MM price tag through 2026-27. Only Jack Hughes ($8MM) and Dougie Hamilton ($9MM) make more per season on the team.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was the first to report the deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
More affordable than I expected, but AFPAnalytics had him at 6 yrs x 7.265 mill.
YEAH! I would be smooth sailing to if you basically give me what I want! LOL!
That’s a lot of money for a Bratt!
Ooof. I agree with Josh that this isn’t above market value, but 8×8 is above Bratt’s performance so far: he’s had only two starring seasons, after all. And tossing in trade protection, this is another one they’ll live to regret.
Not bad for a 6th-round pick.
Slight overpay; hopefully he can improve that point total by 10% for the next 3-4 years to make it a good deal
I guess I”ll buck the trend here and say this is a great value contract. His closest comparable is Fiala who got the same money but… Bratt is younger, has further development upside, signed for longer team control, didn’t get his contract inflated 1 year on from Fiala signing and the cap is expected to increase significantly after next season. And yet… Everyone thought the Fiala deal was a master stroke… Not sure what people think the market rate for a 30 goal scorer with point per game expectation is but it sure aint $7.5m
It’s not even so much the AAV. It’s the TERM. Over and over and over and over and over again we see teams handing out these max term contracts getting screwed and in cap hell over them. The question isn’t whether a 30-goal 70+point scorer is worth north of $7.5 MM. It’s whether a guy who’s come close to that mark only twice in six seasons will *consistently* keep on doing that, year after year, for the next eight seasons. For every Bergeron or Matthews, there are five Bobby Ryans, Ekman-Larssons, Yandles, Turrises, Ladds, Vlasics, Neals, Lucics …
(Come to that, how enthused are Devils fans to be still carrying buyout charges for those big contracts handed out to Cory Schneider and Ilya Kovalchuk?)
“Jesper brrrlattt. Jesper brrrlatt” -biz nasty
These are the kinds of contracts that put teams in salary cap hell.
If this is the number, I start listening to offers for Jake Guentzel were I Dubas. Jake will get $8 million AAV or more.
Maybe I pay him and keep him, but I at least shop him a bit first.