Timo Time and 1st Round Draft Picks
Good morning Devils fans. Well, it’s official. Timo Meier has signed a long term extension with New Jersey. Per CapFriendly, Meier’s contract is an 8 year, $8.8M AAV deal. You can find a year to year breakdown here:
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/timo-meier
I think this is a solid move for a number of reasons. First, this was lower than the rumored request Timo made in San Jose for a $9-9.5M deal. This shows he’s willing to take a pay cut to stay on this team long term and compete with this young core. When you look at our contract situation for our forwards, we have Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes locked in until 2030 with Meier and Bratt an extra year after. Nico is signed until 2027. Who knows what will happen in 4 years but you would have to assume there’s a good chance Nico will resign if we end up having the years I hope we’ll have. Palat will be around hopefully until the end of contract, still producing. If Toffoli and Mercer extend next season, we can have most of our core top 9 locked in for at least a 3-4 cup window.
Second, because Timo came in at under $9M and our cap went up a bit, we’ll have a bit of wiggle room when resigning depth role players and bringing in youth pieces from our prospect pool. The free agents I would definitely want back are Bastian, Mcleod, and Bahl. I would like to have Boqvist but can see a situation where we trade him for draft capital, opening up a slot for either a better free agent or someone like Graeme Clarke, Nolan Foote, or Chase Stillman.
Finally, on the subject of cap, something to keep in mind is that while the ceiling grows every year usually (assuming we’re not in the middle of a pandemic or labor lockout), we also have some dead cap coming off the books. Next season, the buyout costs of Cory Schneider and Janne Kuokkanen will expire, leaving us an extra $2.325M to play with. This will be the same year we’ll look to extend Dawson Mercer and Akira Schmid. Every cent will count as we continue to build and maintain the core we have with the pieces that work. Great move by GM Tom Fitzgerald. Let’s see what happens as we approach the second night of the draft where we have 6 picks total, starting with the 2nd round #58 overall.
Speaking of the draft, if you caught the first round last night, you enjoyed a pretty straight forward event. A lot of country homages, cowboy hats, and discussions of karaoke song choices. Starting off with the honoring of David Poile in his retirement and his contributions to Nashville hockey, each team paid their respects during their picks for the most part. No surprise as Connor Bedard was selected 1st overall by Chicago. Some fans were still irked about the Blackhawks getting 1st overall in the draft lottery. Personally, I don’t really think it’s that shocking that Chicago won the 1st pick with the fact they had the 3rd best odds to do it. If you remember, the Devils moved up 4 spots in the 2017 lottery for Nico Hischier and two spots for Jack Hughes. If you get a chance, there’s a great video online of Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson giving an interview as “Kyle from Chicago… on the matter that I enjoyed.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/37931415/chicago-blackhawks-gm-kyle-davidson-interview-incognito
Other than that, it was a pretty reasonable draft. Most of the picks projected at the top 10 went in their most likely order. I was surprised Adam Fantilli went 3rd instead of 2nd. I personally liked his game a bit more than Leo Carlsson but I understand you might want to go a bit bigger of a player in the hopes of a smoother physical transition to the NHL. During Montreal’s selection, Carey Price was chosen to announce their draft pick but he blanked on Dave Reinbacher’s last name. Hopefully, Price isn’t being too hard on himself. That would be a huge fear of mine if I ever got the chance to announce NJ’s pick. Rangers got a steal with Gabe Perreault at 23rd. Perreault had similar numbers in his last year of the USHL as Jack Hughes did so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of players develops there. No goalies were taken in the 1st round. I have a feeling a goalie might be selected in the 2nd round. I understand Carson Bjarnason is the highest ranked as of now for North American goalies, but looking purely at save percentage, record, and goals allowed, I would rather go for Trey Augustine or Jacob Fowler.
The Devils will select 58th overall. I’m still pulling for Seattle Thunderbird’s C Graecyn Sawchyn. I think he would fit in really nicely into our AHL system and provide depth at the center position. I could also see Felix Nilsson or Oskar Fisker Moelgaard as options if they are still available.
What are your thoughts? How are we feeling about Timo’s deal and the first night of the draft? Who do you want at 58th overall for NJ?
Raise Hell,
-Josh Biringer