There hasn't been a lot of New Jersey Devils news as of late, but there has been a lot of news around the National Hockey League. Many teams are locking up their core players, Max Pacioretty, Jeff Skinner and Wayne Simmonds for example, to long-term contracts before a new collective bargaining agreement is agreed upon and ratified.

The recent extensions of young, middle-to-upper tier players has me asking myself one question: should the Devils try and re-sign their top upcoming unrestricted free agents (Travis Zajac, David Clarkson, etc.) to long-term extensions now or wait for the new CBA to try and get something done?

There are some benefits to each side. If the Devils lock them up now, they'll obviously have them signed to long-term extensions and will have them around for a while, which is good. The negative is, if they give Zajac and Clarkson long-term big money contracts and the cap lowers, the Devils could find themselves in a tough situation. What may seem like fair contracts now could turn into contracts you look at and say 'he's overpaid' under the next CBA. That's the risk you have to take if you want them locked up now.

What do you all think? Should Lou Lamoriello try and lock these guys up now, or should he wait until a new CBA is in place and go from there? I'm interested in hearing your opinions on this.

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