Devils avoid arbitration with Zajac

July 22, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

With countless Devil fans everywhere sweating out Travis Zajac‘s impending arbitration hearing Friday, word has come down early this morning that the Devils’ third-year center has re-upped to a ‘long-term’ deal.  While exact terms aren’t available yet apparently Zajac is signed through this season and next at the very least, possibly longer.

Even though I wasn’t particularly worried about Zajac going to arbitration myself the way most Devils fans were because of past history (not everyone has Bobby Holik‘s ego, and Scott Gomez was gone no matter what was said about him in his own arb hearing), re-signing the young center long-term does eliminate one headache for GM Lou Lamoriello this offseason if the cap does go down and also ensures the Devils’ top line of Zajac (20 G, 42 A and +33 last season), forty-goal scorer Zach Parise and captain Jamie Langenbrunner are all locked up for at least the next two years.  Getting Zajac re-signed was a key priority according to Lamoriello:

“During his previous three seasons in the National Hockey League, Travis Zajac has proven to be among the top young players in the game, and has developed into one of the core players on our team,” Devils chief executive Lou Lamoriello said in announcing the signing on Wednesday.

UPDATE: Rich Chere first broke that it was a four-year deal, and now the terms have finally been known.  According to Tom Gulutti‘s Fire and Ice blog, the four-year deal has a total worth of $15.55 million – or a $3,887,500 cap hit per season.  Zajac is scheduled to make $2.75 million in ’09-10, $3.5 million in ’10-11, $4.5 million in ’11-12 and $4.75 million in ’12-13.  At first it may seem a bit pricey for a guy that’s had one good season but really it’s good value considering it includes Zajac’s first year of UFA and he probably would have gotten something above $3 million in arbitration this year anyway.