Devils avoid salary arbitration with leading scorer
The Devils have managed to avoid salary arbitration with 24-year-old Jesper Bratt on Wednesday, signing him to a 1-year deal worth $5.45M. They were scheduled to head to arbitration where the Devils filed a salary of $4.15M and Bratt filed for a salary of $6.5M. The $5.45M salary they agreed to is just over half way between the two filed arbitration numbers.
After a reported tense negotiation for his previous contract that was a 2-year deal and saw him earn $2.75M per season, it was expected that Bratt and the Devils would head to arbitration. The fact they were able to avoid arbitration is somewhat surprising given how far apart the team and player were in their filings.
Bratt is coming off of a 73-point season in which he scored 26 goals and added 47 assists. In 5 years and 307 NHL games, all with the Devils, Bratt has amassed 70 goals and 203 points. Bratt will again be an RFA at the end of next season and will have a qualifying offer much closer to the $6.5M he was originally seeking, which should help in the negotiations - especially if he can replicate his production from last season.
The 1-year term seems more like Bratt betting on himself to produce at the rate he did last season in the hopes of cashing in on a bridge deal that would walk him to free agency when the cap is expected to increase drastically.
