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New Jersey Devils: What Should Jesper Bratt Expect In His Next Contract?

By David Holliday

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MARCH 06: Jesper Bratt #63 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates his goal against the St. Louis Blues at 8:38 of the first period at the Prudential Center on March 06, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MARCH 06: Jesper Bratt #63 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates his goal against the St. Louis Blues at 8:38 of the first period at the Prudential Center on March 06, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The New Jersey Devils have already had a long offseason with a ton of things that needed to get done and still some work to do. At the top of this list currently is getting two of their restricted free agents in Jesper Bratt and Mackenzie Blackwood signed. Both of these two are key pieces moving forwards.

Bratt is a bit of a tough nut to crack for Devils fans and even more so for those around the league. To this day, it’s not clear if other teams are aware of his talent since he plays in New Jersey on what has been one of the worst teams in the league. He came out of nowhere is rookie year, tearing it up and looking like a Calder Trophy contender the first half of the season before the workload caught up to him. Since then has been a little bit quieter, though, that is not to say in any way he has been bad.

He has yet to play a full 82 games, but it not his fault. Don’t slap an injury-prone tag on him just yet. The first season is hard on young players, so missing a few games is not a big deal and his second was cut short right away with a stray puck to the face right before the season started, and unfortunately before he could play in his homeland of Sweden. With his first non-entry-level deal done he is going to need to stay healthy moving forward though or it should and will impact future deals.

Through the first three years, Bratt has managed to accumulate 100 points in 185 games. This is very good, especially on a team that has trouble scoring. With only 37 goals, however, he has not been filling the net as much as we hoped. It was trending in a much better direction this last season where he had 16, nearly half of his overall total. He has a good shot and just needs the right mindset and perhaps coach to tell him to fire the puck more.

So what should the Devils do? The clear and obvious answer is to sign him. The harder question is do you lock him up long term and overpay a bit right now hoping he keeps progressing or go for a bridge deal and let it play out?

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Both options would be fine, but the idea of a 4-5 year deal best fits the situation. It will give him some job security and he will know where he stands with the franchise right away, which is an important piece moving forward. He can slot on any of the top three lines and be effective, move up if we have an injury in a future year when the talent is there for such a thing, and even if he is not scoring he plays a good 200-foot game.

With the cap stuck where it is for this season, and for all we know right now a few more years,the Devils should take advantage of the situation and offer him between $3.75-4.25 million a season. It would be a lot for a 32-35 point player, but when he hits his stride even more as the team grows with him I predict it will jump up and he will be a consistent 45-50 point guy.

At the time that deal is finished, he would be 26-27 years old and still have time for one big payday with lots left in the tank at a time the Devils should be competing in the playoffs. Both team and player could evaluate then on how they should move forward.

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