Nice of everyone to take team friendly deals when they can just wait for the cap to go up

Bratt, Meier - Fiala comp
Yegor - qualifying offer amount
McLeod - fair offer for 4C
Bahl, Boqvist, Walsh - will be under $1m
Bastian - might get a little more
Haula - gets +/- $250k
Severson - just 1 year

I think the AAVs are probably pretty close.

I just find it hard to believe that Severson would give up 6M x 6Y, for example, and risk signing a contract for one year.

Me too.

Klingberg did it. But I think mostly because he overestimated his own appeal. The big 7x7 offers never came in for him. But Severson is a bit younger and better overall player.

I was thinking about a 1 year severson deal for a while after seeing all these ACGMs leaving devils with a fair amount of cap space. I like it

Does he go for it though?

I just don’t see another year for Nemec in the AHL. Guy at age 18 posted 34 points in 65 regular season games, then another 4 points in 6 playoff games. Severson is going to take a 6x6 somewhere else. It’s super easy to figure out pairings too…Luke Hughes/John Marino, Jonas Seigenthaler/Dougie Hamilton, and Kevin Bahl/Simon Nemec. Brendan smith remains 7th d-man. There’s great fluidity in those pairings.

He is 19 years old. Is it worth burning a year of ELC to have him learning on the fly? I would rather see him at $883k in 2026-27, when he is in his prime, and Luke, Dawson are on big deals.

Keep him in Utica one more year. Give him a few games (9 or less) at end of year. And fully take training wheels off starting 2024-25.

Also, easier to ease one rookie into unit at a time.

If his “learning on the fly” is equivalent to what Luke Hughes just did, than yes it’s absolutely worth him being on the 3rd pairing versus paying Severson a contract (6 years/$6 million per) that doesn’t align with our long term needs. If you want the money down the line to sign Mercer, Holtz, Luke, and Nemec you gotta keep cap space open and giving it to either Severson or Graves is the wrong decision.

I think there are options that could keep Nemec down for one more year, but wouldn’t block him long-term. Preserving his slide may be the best long-term cap decision we can make. Here are some alternatives…

1. Sign or acquire short-term veteran to play with Luke for one year on 3rd pair.

2. Extend Severson if he will take either short-term deal or longer deal without NTC. Play the same right side for another year or two, then trade someone.

3. Play combination of in-house alternatives (Smith, Walsh, Vilen, etc).

All would allow us to keep Nemec in AHL for one more year.

I get what you’re saying, but the kid already almost forced himself onto the team out of training camp this past season. He just had an unbelievable year in the AHL and then led all Slovakian players in ice time at the IIHF. Does that honestly sound like somebody who’s going to play another year in the A?