NHL Rumors: Timo Meier Seeking Eight-Year Extension With The Devils

The start of the busy offseason for the New Jersey Devils has begun. First, the Devils traded Damon Severson to Columbus. The Devils followed that up by re-signing one of their top restricted free agents Jesper Bratt to a new eight-year contract extension. But the work is just beginning for the Devils and general manager Tom Fitzgerald.

“Yesterday was just the start of my long, my busy summer,” Fitzgerald said in his media availability on Friday morning.

Despite what some thought, this summer was going to be just as busy if not busier than last offseason. The Devils have areas of need still to address. Not to mention several big pieces of their team that still need to be re-signed for the short and long term.

One of those long-term pieces is Timo Meier. With the Bratt contract out of the way, Fitzgerald’s attention is fully on Meier.

“We have a big RFA that’s pending right now, we’re working towards an agreement, we’re in negotiations,” Fitzgerald said on Timo Meier.

Though this will be a longer process than Bratt’s was. On Thursday, it was announced via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet that the Devils filed team-elected arbitration with Meier. The Devils acquired Meier at the NHL Trade Deadline not only for this season but for many seasons to come.

The idea here is to reduce the $10 million qualifying offer by 85 percent to $8.5 million. This also gives the Devils more time to negotiate a new contract. It is sounding more and more, the parties are going to get a deal done.

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Fitzgerald sounded pretty confident that a long-term extension between Meier and the Devils was going to be hatched out.

“He reiterated that, yesterday. This is where (Timo Meier) wants to be,” Fitzgerald said.

And from the sounds of it, Meier wants to remain with the Devils for the long term.

“Meier has expressed wanting to stay in New Jersey for the next eight years,” Fitzgerald continued. “He has asked his agent to negotiate an eight-year deal to stay with the Devils.”

That is the good news for the Devils they have their top players around for the foreseeable future. The question that remains for New Jersey is what the number will be for Meier on an eight-year extension.

As mentioned yesterday, the Devils got Bratt in under their salary hierarchy. This salary hierarchy is something that Fitzgerald has been speaking about since the beginning of this whole process. Through the negotiations with Bratt, he made it clear that the top players can’t get every single dollar. It is important for the remaining dollars left on the table for the use to sign depth players. New Jersey is building a winning team for the long term, not the short term.

And while it is a year-to-year business, they need to have room to operate to build that winning team. Entering this offseason, the salary cap should not be hampering the growth of the Devils as a whole. This is something Meier and his camp understand as well. And they will get to a number that works. If it is just under Jack Hughes‘s $8 million AAV then that is what it is. Just above that is fine too.

But the main thing is Meier wants to remain in New Jersey. And the goal for Fitzgerald has not changed which is signing Meier to a long-term extension.