New Jersey Devils: 3 Scenarios For Jesper Bratt Contract Negotiations
One of the biggest priorities this season is re-signing Jesper Bratt. There are a ton of free agents, both restricted and unrestricted. Bratt and Timo Meier are the two most important. The New Jersey Devils might have more than $30 million in cap space, but more than half their room is going to the two star wingers.
Bratt’s negotiations have always been torturous. They are long, drawn out, and painful every time. There have only been two of them, but each has put Devils fans through a special type of hurt. Each time it works out, but as the team looks at another offseason with an expiring Bratt contract, this time will be different.
There is no world where the Devils accept another short-term deal. They did that twice in order to have Bratt prove himself just a little more. Last year could have been a one-hit-wonder. Three years ago, he hadn’t proven anything. Now, he has two 73-point seasons under his belt. Still, this won’t be easy. It will go one of three ways.
Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy
The Devils and Bratt probably both want this. An easy, smooth negotiation to find common ground relieves a lot of stress and allows both parties to move on to more pressing needs. Unfortunately, there are some caveats with this option. There is no way an easy negotiation leads to an eight-year deal. This is more like a five-year deal.
Still, most would trade a few years to make this contract a lot easier. If Bratt signs a five-year deal for say $7.5 million, that’s an ideal situation. Bratt gets to go back to free agency, this time unrestricted free agency, at 29 years old. The Devils get to pay Bratt through his prime. It’s a win-win. However, both sides will want more.
Grinding Towards Eight Years
There’s a chance that Bratt signs the maximum contract, but it will be for maximum money. Bratt is not going to sign the Jack Hughes contract. It will be close, but he’s not signing that contract specifically (eight years, $64 million). We assume the ask for an eight-year deal is around $9 million per season. Tom Fitzgerald is probably scoffing at that number. He probably wants it closer to $7 million. Bratt’s camp is scoffing at that number.
It will take days and weeks to get both sides to move an inch. There will be a million rumors. Elliotte Friedman will talk about it on 32 Thoughts. Dozens of Devils accounts will pretend to know something. In reality, Bratt’s camp and the Devils front office are probably inching towards something while both make progress with the swiftness of tectonic plates. However, nothing will come of it until the very last moments. That will likely come late in the game.
Last season, the Devils and Bratt agreed to push this negotiation one year by agreeing to a one-year deal before arbitration kicked in. Arbitration has been known to ruin relationships. It’s when a neutral arbitrator comes in and decides the contract for both sides. Once in arbitration, there is no “yes and no.” The decision is the decision.
An eight-year deal would come with everyone staring that in the face. Neither side wants to go to arbitration. If an eight-year deal is all that Fitzgerald wants to offer, then it will take a long time to get there. It will be painful, but in the end, it might be worth it. Bratt would be making closer to $8.5 million under these circumstances, but that could be a steal under a constantly rising salary cap.
Arbitration
We touched on this in the last slide, but there is a real possibility that the Devils and Bratt can’t come up with a deal; this time, they don’t make up before arbitration hits. That would likely ruin the relationship with the Devils, but they would sit on the deal for whatever it ends up being worth.
There is likely no coming back for the Devils and Bratt if they head to arbitration. The Devils will accept the terms because they want to win a Stanley Cup, and Bratt helps them get there. However, Bratt drew this out for a third time, and they couldn’t come to a deal. At that point, they would treat him like a rental.
As you noticed, none of these options involve a trade. There is no world where the Devils trade Bratt unless something insane happens. There was a reason he made comments in his exit interview about being back next season. That shows confidence that the two sides will get a deal done.
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If they can’t, this is the reason arbitration is in place. It’s a last-ditch effort, and the Devils might need that. It would march Bratt right towards unrestricted free agency. That might be the end of that for this partnership.