It’s September and you know what that means. NHL hockey comes back this month. Sure, it’s only preseason, but we’ll take it for now.
The first day of September brought two things. The first was insane rain and storms, but it also brought the New York Islanders formally announcing contracts for players signed to multi-year deals. Among them was former New Jersey Devil Kyle Palmieri, who was traded last year to the Islanders, along with Travis Zajac. Former Devils turned Minnesota Wild, Zach Parise, is rumored to have also signed with the Islanders, but that wasn’t confirmed by the team just yet.
Palmieri is one of a handful of former New Jersey players who have since taken their talents elsewhere since last season. Before the puck drops on the 2021-2022 season, let’s take a look back at where they are now. Let’s also take a look at the contracts they signed.
Who Are We Looking At?
All players who were on the team last season but have since signed an NHL contract elsewhere are included. That includes players who signed a two-way deal with an NHL team. Players that signed AHL deal or overseas aren’t included.
Players that left the Devils before last season also aren’t included. For that reason, Zach Parise isn’t included. It’s been a while since he was relevant to the Devils anyway. Since he was picked in the expansion draft and didn’t choose to sign elsewhere, Nathan Bastian also isn’t included.
The one exception that rule is Blake Coleman. Coleman was traded during the 2019-2020 season to the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, he just signed his first free agency deal this year. Since he’s so soon removed from being a Devil we decided to include him anyway.
Kyle Palmieri
Kyle Palmieri was long expected to re-sign with the Islanders, although Lou Lamoriello and company took their sweet time announcing it. The deal wasn’t announced until September 1st, long after NHL free agency had opened. Lou being Lou, contract details in the “official” announcement were few and far between.
Palmieri’s new deal on Long Island pays him $5,000,000 each year for the next four years. The first two years of the deal have a no-trade clause. The last two featuring a modified no-trade clause.
Palmieri earned himself a slight pay raise from the $4,650,000 he was earning each season during his last deal signed with Ray Shero and the Devils. His last deal also had a modified no-trade clause for its last three years. That meant he could submit an eight team no-trade list. His new contract allows him to submit a 16-team no-trade list during his final two years.
Palmieri is earning almost the same salary, which is a bit of surprising. The NHL is having a flat cap for next season, so players are usually signing for less than they would if the cap was rising. Add in the fact that Palmieri is 30 and that tends to keep general managers a bit on the cautious side. Yes, I know he’s only 30 and it’s a four-year deal, but still in NHL contract terms Palmieri is still on the “wrong” side of 30.
Palmieri got off to a rather slow start with the islanders, but became a playoff-machine scoring seven goals and adding nine point in the Islanders 19-game run to the Eastern Conference finals. The loss of Jordan Eberle to the Seattle Kraken likely upped Palmieri’s value a bit in the eyes of the Islanders as well.
The islanders currently have zero (literally, CapFriendly says “$0”) in cap space. Perhaps Palmieri’s contract could be a problem down the road. That 16 team no-trade list also limits their options moving forward. They have to sign team superstar and restricted free agent Matt Barzal at the end of the 2022-2023 season.
Aaron Dell
Dell was a hasty, waiver wire pickup after Corey Crawford’s unexpected retirement. He signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Sabres for $750,000. If he gets sent to the minors, he gets paid $350,000. That’s a pay cut of $50,000 from the $800,000 one-year deal he was playing under last season. This season $750,000 is the veteran minimum.
Dell is likely serving as insurance for Sabres goaltending. As of now, he’s their fourth goalie on the roster with also newly signed Craig Anderson, rookie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Dustin Tokarski. He’s not signing to be Buffalo’s number one, or number two even. He still has NHL experience and came cheap.
Dell had a rather bad year with the Devils. He posted a record of one win and five losses along with a 4.14 goals against average and 0.857 save percentage. Those were the worst stats of his career, so no doubt Dell is trying to re-establish his value.
Matt Tennyson
The defenseman that Devils’ fans loved to hate signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Nashville Predators. His new deal pays him $750,000 at the NHL level and $325,000 at the minor league level. Interestingly, his salary almost mirrors Aaron Dell’s, although Dell has a slightly higher salary in the AHL. Like I said for Dell, $750,000 in the NHL veteran minimum for this season.
Tennyson is making a small raise in salary from the $700,000 he made each year on his two-year deal with the Devils. His salary in the minors did decrease, as his deal with New Jersey paid him $350,000 at the minor league level. Just like his deal with New Jersey, no no trade clause is included whatsoever.
Unfortunately for Tennyson, his second deal he signed with the San Jose Sharks remains his highest paying. That deal saw him make $925,000 each year the NHL, but much less in the minors where he was paid $70,000 back in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 season. The good news is Tennyson has added a little value since subsequent deals with the Sharks, Carolina Hurricanes, and Sabres all saw him sign for between $600,000-$700,000.
Brett Seney
Seney signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. That deal sees him paid $750,000 at the NHL level and $250,000 at the AHL level. If you haven’t been paying attention, $750,000 is the new NHL veteran minimum for this season. I’ve already said it three times. Maybe you weren’t paying attention. Maybe you skipped over everyone else to read about Brett Seney because the anticipation was killing you. I’m, not here to judge.
Seney was on a similar, one-year deal with the Devils last year. The only difference was he was paid the then NHL veterans minimum of $700,000 at the NHL level. His entry level deal was his highest to date when he carried an average annual value of $825,000 over the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 NHL season. That deal saw him paid much less at the AHL level, where he would paid $70,000.
Ryan Murray
The former number two overall pick was a low-risk, high-reward acquisition when the Devils sent over a fifth round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for him. Now he takes his talents to the cup favorite Colorado Avalanche on a one-year deal that pays him $2 million. That’s less than half of the $4.6 million average annual value he had on his last two year contract.
Injuries had derailed Murray’s career. Columbus saw they couldn’t, and probably didn’t, want to re-sign him so sent him to New Jersey to just get something and give Murray a chance to rebuild himself. After all, New Jersey was in desperate need of a left shooting defenseman. Compared to the 2019-2020 season, which was Murray’s worst, he did rebound a bit in his short stint with New Jersey. Daily Faceoff ranks him the 40th best right defenseman in the NHL.
The Avalanche’s roster currently has nine defenseman. Daily Faceoff projects that Murray will team up with Bowen Byram, the highly touted defensive prospect who had his rookie season plagued by injuries last year, on the team’s third defensive pairing. Daily Faceoff ranks them the second best third defensive pairing in the NHL. If those prediction’s hold true, this looks like a good match for Murray and the Avalanche. Maybe he’ll even get a cup ring out of it. That might be worse the pay cut alone.
Plus, imagine if Murray comes out of this as a veteran with a cup ring? That will up his value, especially for a team that just needs a veteran to help the young guys. Maybe he’ll even get rewarded with a multiyear deal. After all, that’s exactly what happened for Kevin Shattenkirk. With the Avalanche’s deep prospect pool, and cup aspirations and the contracts that come with it, I don’t think Murray’s time in Colorado will last beyond this year.
Connor Carrick
Connor Carrick is a great dude, but he’s barely a fringe NHL player. With the new defensive acquisitions of Jonas Siegelhather, Ryan Graves, and Dougie Hamilton, it was a forgone conclusion Carrick would have to sign elsewhere. Lucky for him he got a one year, two way deal with the NHL’s newest team the Seattle Kraken. The Kraken will pay him $800,000 at the NHL level and $350,000 at the minors level.
Carrick is making a little more than half of what his old deal with the Devils paid him. That two year deal signed after he was acquired in the Ben Lovejoy trade with the Dallas Stars paid him $1,500,000 per year. He’s also coming off a season that saw him put on waivers and sent to the AHL when the Devils had a much worse defensive group.
Honestly for Carrick, he can’t be picky. Any NHL level deal was a good level deal for him. Players like him are a dime a dozen and no doubt he flat cap is hurting their value. I hope it works out for him in Seattle, he deserves it.
Josh Jacobs
No, not the guy who plays for the Las Vegas Raiders. Jacobs came to the team with high expectations when he was drafted in the second round in 2014, but unfortunately was never given the opportunity to really break in at the NHL level. In his six seasons with the organization, he’s only played in three NHL games. Remember, like I said about Carrick, this is also a team that has lacked defensive depth and prospects for a long time.
Jacobs signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. Not considering the Devils acquisitions of Graves and Hamilton, he was probably expendable anyway. His new deal has him paid the $750,000 NHL veterans minimum at the NHL level but a rather small amount of $75,000 in the minors. In his last year with the Devils, he was paid the then veteran minimum of $700,000 at the NHL level, but a more substantial $130,000 in the minors. For the record, Daily Faceoff doesn’t have him projected to make the Hurricanes NHL roster.
Dmitry Kulikov
Kulikov was one of the most surprising of the Devils’ defenseman last year. Signed to the bargain price of $1,150,000 last season for one year, the stay-at-home defenseman put out one of the best years of his career and re-established some of the value he had when he signed for $4,330,000 a year with the Winnipeg Jets.
Kulikov almost doubles his salary to $2,250,000 a season with his new two-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. His new deal also includes two season of a modified n-trade clause where he can submit an eight team no-trade list. Daily Faceoff has him projected to be on Minnesota’s third defensive pairing. Guess who is projected to be his new partner? That would be former Devil, and two time Stanley cup finalist Jon Merrill. Daily Faceoff ranks them the 11th best third defensive pairing in the NHL.
With the games current economic situation, most team probably would have liked to sign Kulikov under the $2,000,000 mark. After all, he’s a defensive defenseman, not a Victor Hedman or Adam Fox. For the Wild, that extra $250,000 wasn’t going to break the bank enough to let still unsigned Kirill Kaprizov walk away (apparently he’s close to a five year deal as we write this). No matter what team he plays on, Kulikov has proven to be an excellent defensive depth signing.
Blake Coleman
Let’s be honest, this was one of the ones you were waiting for. After two (well, one and a half) seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning and two Stanley Cup rings, Pickles is taking his talents north of the border to the Calgary Flames. With the Lightning’s cap situation, there was really no possible way they could have re-signed him. Although some fans hoped for a reunion with the Devils, that didn’t happen either.
Coleman signed a monster six-year deal with an average annual value of $4,900,000. His first three years have a no-trade clause, followed by modified no-trade clauses with a ten team no-trade list the rest of the term. Coleman’s new deal pays him more than double the $1,800,000 he was making a season with New Jersey and Tampa. No doubt being a two time Stanley Cup champion in the prime of his career added to his value. Sports Illustrated had Coleman ranked number six of the summer’s top free agents.
Is Blake Coleman Overpaid?
No matter how you look at this, it feels like the Flames overpaid for Coleman. Coleman’s a great player, but all the factors were working against him being signed for almost $5,000,000. The NHL has its flat cap. The Flames are a Canadian team suffering worse finances than their American neighbors. Remember, Canadian hockey teams haven’t had any gate revenue since March 2020. That is aside from the very limited capacity Montreal has at the very end of the season and playoffs.
According to Spotrac, Coleman’s salary would put him in 34th place among all NHL right wings. Daily Faceoff has Coleman ranked 50th best right wing in the NHL. Going off Spotrac’s list, the 50th placed right wing, Valeri Nichuskin of the Colorado Avalanche, makes $2,500,000. For the record, Coleman isn’t on that list, because for some odd reason Spotrac has him listed as a center.
Sure, a lot of things effect contract value. How many cap space does a team have? Are they taking a discount to sign with a certain team? Are they taking less money to have a no trade clause? But all of that, mixed with the finances behind a Canadian team, make it surprising at least that they offered Coleman that much money.
Some of you may be thinking, “but Coleman can play left or right wing!” True, but we’re going off of right wing salaries for now because Daily Faceoff has him projected to be Calgary’s second line right wing. Remember, Coleman was a third line player with the Lightning. You can say the Lightning’s stacked lineup was the reason he was relegated to the bottom six, but it was a role he played with perfection. He’s getting a nice raise, and promotion, with Calgary. Maybe Calgary overpaid for his versatility at either wing?
Isn’t There Another Comparison?
Speaking of Coleman’s time in Tampa, let’s compare his salary to that of his line mate turned free agent Barclay Goodrow. Goodrow signed with the New York Rangers on a six-year deal that carries an average annual value of $3,640,000. That deal has been widely regarded as an overpayment on the part of the Rangers. Coleman is a better player than Goodrow, and deserves to be paid better, but just how much?
When Coleman signed with Calgary, we joked that he did it because Calgary reminds him of Texas. Players don’t traditionally favor signing with Canadian teams, because of the tax hassles to their American counterparts. If we had to guess, Calgary wanted to make an impression in free agency and paid well above market value for Coleman’s services. Coleman saw the offer was better than anything he was getting stateside and decided to go to Calgary.