New Jersey has locked up 2/3 of their 4th line, as Stephen Gionta has inked a two-year extension with the team.
Earlier today the Devils re-signed Steve Bernier to a one-year deal.
Ryan Carter is still unsigned, but Lamoriello has said he'd like to bring back the entire 4th line so I wouldn't rule it out.
I'll have more on everything within the next couple days when things cool down.
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The Devils said they wanted to bring in a veteran to compete for the backup job with Keith Kinkaid, and they've done just that in signing former Devil Scott Clemmensen.
Clemmensen signed a one-year, two-way contract with the team, according to Darren Pang.
I think this was a smart signing by Lou Lamoriello, as it added some competition for Kinkaid in training camp.
The organization is probably hoping for Kinkaid to take the next step forward and win the job, but I'm sure they'd be OK either way.
Regardless of what happens, they'll see what they have in Kinkaid.
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Lou Lamoriello has said he'd like to bring back his 4th line, and he was able to retain 1/3 of it today as he reached an agreement with Steve Bernier on a one-year extension.
Bernier's extension is worth $600,000, which is barely over league minimum. He's proved to be a serviceable 4th liner through the years, but has tended to struggle when forced up the lineup or expected to produce regularly.
With the signings of Cammalleri and Havlat, the Devils added more depth and scoring so Bernier won't be forced to produce more than he's capable of. He'll play on the 4th line, and at that salary I think the Devils were smart to bring him back.
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The Devils have signed another Czech.
Martin Havlat has put pen to paper on a one-year deal worth $1.5 million, according to Larry Brooks.
Havlat has struggled to stay healthy, but has been effective when he's been been in the lineup. Havlat averaged 1.85 points/60 minutes of 5 vs 5 ice last year with San Jose, which would have ranked 2nd on the Devils only behind Jaromir Jagr.
Like with Cammalleri, I'll go more in-depth on this tomorrow. I like the signing at such a cheap price.
Also worth noting: the Devils now have 11 top-9 forwards. I don't know that they're done adding, either, so a couple guys could be moved soon.
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The New Jersey Devils have jumped into the free agent pool head first by signing one of the most highly coveted goal scorers to a five-year deal.
That goal scorer is Mike Cammalleri, who signed a $25 million contract with the team that will pay him an average of $5M per season.
Cammalleri scored 26 goals in 63 games for an offensively starved Flames team and posted good possession numbers while doing so. I think he'll be an excellent fit for New Jersey.
The five-year term is a little much, but Cammalleri should be quite effective for the first few years and you usually have to give up term to get coveted players in free agency.
I'll have more on this tomorrow.
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Mark Fayne was courted heavily by the Edmonton Oilers since the first day of the interview period, so it should come as no surprise that's where he ended up.
Fayne has put pen to paper on a four-year contract worth $14 million that will see him earn an annual average of $3.5 million per season.
The Oilers are beginning to take analytics seriously and Fayne did very well in terms of advanced statistics, so it makes sense to see him land there. The same can be said for Benoit Pouliot.
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The Devils were rumored to have interest in Mike Cammalleri at the trade deadline, and that doesn't appear to have gone away.
New Jersey has set to purpose in hopes of adding a top-6 scoring forward in free agency, with Cammalleri looking to be one of their prime targets.
According to Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet, the Devils may be leading the way for his services.
Kypreos on Fan 590 is saying that he believes the Devils are the front runner for Cammalleri
— Hope_Smoke (@Hope_Smoke) July 1, 2014Cammalleri scored 26 goals in 63 games for a poor Flames team while carrying the mail possession wise, so I think he'd be a welcome addition to the team.
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Free agency opens up today and the Devils are expected to be quite active in hopes of bringing in one or two offensive forwards.
The team has $14 million in cap space but needs to sign (or re-sign) a 4th line and a backup goaltender so they don't have endless pits of money. That said, they do have quite a bit of flexibility to bring in some help up front after buying out Anton Volchenkov.
Lamoriello said the team would like to add scoring help on UFA market. Feels team has cap room now to do that after buying out Volchenkov.
— Tom Gulitti (@TGfireandice) June 30, 2014NHL writer and Islanders beat Chris Botta expects the Devils to be active in hopes of putting together a playoff team for the new ownership group.
New Jersey Devils will be busy this week. Second-year owners don't want to miss the playoffs again.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) June 30, 2014Lamoriello said one of the things he admires most about the new group is their commitment to winning and using all assets they have (i.e. money) in order to put together a winning product, so he's surely pleased with the flexibility they've given him.
While the center and defense crops in this class are pretty weak, there are quite a few high-end wingers who could help the Devils.
Thomas Vanek, who was 6th in the NHL in 5v5 points/60 last year, as well as Radim Vrbata, Matt Moulson, Ales Hemsky and Mike Cammalleri, among others, headline the best available wingers.
All of them could be a great deal of help to a team that struggles to produce offense, and if the Devils play their cards right they may be able to land two of them.
I'll be updating this post throughout what could be a busy day for the Devils.
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