5 Reasons Matt Duchene Should Pick New Jersey Devils

Money

Someone is going to “overpay” for Matt Duchene. However, smart people usually say you can never overpay a superstar. Is Duchene that? Well, that’s the question that scares me most.

The Ottawa Senators reportedly offered Duchene an eight-year, $64 million deal. That would give him a $2 million raise to his current deal. He turned that deal down, forcing the Senators to trade him to the Blue Jackets.

Maybe he only turned that deal down because he wanted to play for a winner, but he isn’t coming to a team like the Devils on a discount. The Devils can offer about as much as anyone, while still re-signing everyone necessary on the roster.

Depending on how much the salary cap goes up, the Devils will have between $32 million and $33 million to spend this offseason if they so choose. They have three to four restricted free agents on the books they will look to re-sign. However, that will cost at most $9 million. After the most they might spend on these players, they have $24 million. If they give that $8 million to Matt Duchene, that gives them $16 million to play with. They could give $12 million to Erik Karlsson, and still have enough to give Hall and Hischier lofty extensions.

That’s part of the equation here. Duchene wants to get paid, but he wants to know the great players around him will also get paid. He wants to know that his team will have the ability to sign the next great free agent or trade partner. His salary cap work along with a nice contract could get Duchene to sign.