Tom Gulitti of the Bergen Record is today reporting that the New Jersey Devils have finally re-signed defender Paul Martin to a 3-year contract. Martin will receive $3-million this season, while being paid $4-million in 2008 and $4.5-million in 2009.
Whew.
The 26-year-old blueliner was slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Oh, and we all know how grand that would have turned out.
In 82 games with the Devils last season, Martin posted three goals and 23 assists for 26 points. He skated at a minus-nine and racked up a mere 18 penalty minutes.
He’s totally a bad boy.
No surprise but still awesome news. I wonder what the details could be? I’ll guess about 4 years at $4 million per.
I’m sure he got a good chunk of rafalski’s would be salary.
I would think it would be very close to the deal that Parise just signed, 4yrs, $12M
finally….i think he’s really gonna turn it up this season.
Contract is for 3 years,
Money terms ?????? not yet out
Let’s give him some more responsibility and some PP time and see what he can really do. He’s got the skills to break out, he just needs to find out how to do that within the system.
Eklund is reporting: “Look to the Devils this week. A shake-up trade involving Martin that could set up a blockbuster deal.”
The Rangers could have used him. Damn!
tdr
3 year deal worth probably 4 mil per year. Lou’s definately going to be under cap this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a move for a big defender with the left over cap room.
ignore Eklund’s site, what a croc. He’s the same guy who keeps saying guys with full No Trade Clauses, such as Elias, St Louis, Ohlund, etc, are being traded. Check our Spector’s rant on his site, where he doesn’t mention Eklund’s name, but it’s pretty clear he’s talking about him.
As far as Martin, I agree that he just needs the chance to be the horse. All I can think of is that game in Montreal this past season, where he lugged the puck up the ice from the Devils end, made a great move around the defender, and stuffed it past the Habs goalie (Huet?). It reminds me of the end-to-end rush that Nieds made in the 95 finals against the Wings. Martin never got a chance to play on the top PP, as Rafalski and Langenbrunner ran it, so now it’s Paul’s time to shine. If not, there’s plenty of cap room for Lou to bring in another offensive d-man mid-way through the season.
foxsports.com has the full contract details, 3yrs, $11.5M. That’s about right considering Paul will be the top d-man on the team, and will run the PP
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/7127906
good signing but i think lou is paying for potential and he does not really deserve 4 mill maybe 3.2..or 3.5……..her really hasnt flourished as a player yet …but hopefully he will
Oh wow… Lou finally got back from that vacation of his. Must have been taking those extra few shots at the course before the season gets into full swing
I was just thinking about Paul and when he’ll get signed. I thought we weren’t going to hear until camp the way things were moving! Way to FINALLY get this done Lou!
So what’s the cap up to so far then?
Estimated ’07-08 Charge to Upper Limit: 42,209,240
Estimated ’07-08 Payroll Room 8,335,760
+ Martin’s 3.833 per year = about $4.5M left
That gives Lou plenty of wiggle room to do something during the year.
Here’s the real food for thought:
Rafalski – $6M/5 years
Martin – $3.8M/3 years
Who’s crying over spilled milk now?
Martin still has not lived up to his hype but I still like this deal. It’s only 3 years but still affordable. He has shown flashes of brilliance and hopefully Robinson will bring out the best in him. If not, we still have Andy Greene. The truth is though, that we still NEED Martin and I don’t see him being traded this year.
Overpaid, IMO. It really is paying for what could be unrealized potential.
nj devils199456 ……perhaps he is also rewarding him for last seasons patience during the cap situation. also, as good as this team will be this season i can see them being even better the season after. another year for z and z…..and perhaps some D from farm (corrente?) ….lou’s building nicely.
hopefully Whitey will be paired up with Martin this season. Before this past season, Whitey and Martin were paired together, are were always put out as the shutdown pairing against the other teams, and were getting the top minutes. For some reason this past season, Julien broke them up, playing Whitey with Rafalski and Martin was always getting a different partner (Oduya, Matvichuk, Greene, etc). Put that pairing together, and the team has their shutdown pairing back. RM and Rachunek should pair up, and Greene with Vishnevsky.
It a huge sigh of relief to know he’s staying with us, but three years? aww, come on…
With 4.5 in cap space left, can we bring in another top four D man? i.e Markov or Sopel or somebody. we seem to be pretty deep in 3rd line defense which is great for depth. However, do we want the KR, RM JO or VV getting major minutes every night? Scary stuff.
Think the team pretty solid right now. Should keep the 4.5 and save it for the trade dealine.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I don’t think Paul Martin is that good. I really don’t. He’s got Rafalski-itus. Coughs the puck up in the zone, gets caught out of position.
Then someone above said to match him up with Colin White? Colin has a lot to prove. He hasn’t done shiat since 2000. Never uses his size, gets beat. For a dude that’s 6’4, 225 he should use his size to his advantage. Take a 2 min minor in the 1st period to make it known that you won’t take any crap going on in front of Marty. The other team will learn quickly.
Both Martin and White need to become better defensemen. Period.
AKA, you’re right on. For as much as we’d like to see a blockbuster trade, I like the assets we have right now.
Martin-Rachunek
White-Greene
Vishnevski-Matvichuk(if he stays healthy)
Think about it Martin only played with Nieds Stevens for one year. He never even really played along side with them.
Martin I think is and will be better than Rafalski ever was.
I can not see Rachunek as a first line D man. KR is a third line D man. I like your second line D tandum and your third. We need a horse to be on the first D line with Martin. Without a first line D man the lineup would probably be
Martin/White
Greene/Vishneveski
Odulya/Mavichuk/Rachunek
I agree we should keep some cap space. But we could pick up a $4 million player at mid season for only a $2 mil cap hit. lets save $2 mil and take the $2.5 mil and the $1.4 mil due Mavickuk and see if we can get a $4 mil first line D man. We would still have $2 mil or so for a mid season pick up.
Makes sense to me. There was a rumor floating about Jovo but I can’t see that one happening, esp. considering he is making $6M. I too would like to see a shut down stud w/Martin. White will always be a 2nd pairing guy.
Ignore the Jovo rumors from Eklund’s site. First, he had a no trade clause, and just built a house in the Phoenix area. Second, he has a $7M cap hit, so that Devils would have to remove at least $3M from their roster for him. Finally, Phoenix is under the cap minimum currently even with Jovo’s $7M, so they would need at least $7M back in salary, which means the Devils would have to trade at least 2 major players off their roster to get him.
I agree that Lou is just going to start the season with the 7 d-men he has now, and see how it plays out. If they are lacking, then they have just under $5M in cap room to bring in someone.
Marty is going to get peppered every night with this bunch in front of him.
Martin is a good offensive D-man, but he isn’t that good. He isn’t physical. He’s quick, but not scary quick. He’s sound on the puck, but he’s not going to juke anyone out of his jock. He has a good shot from the point, but it isn’t especially heavy or especially accurate. He’s not physical. He’s not going to block a bunch of shots. He isn’t a terribly good position player. He’s not going to get any better at any of those things. He is a solid, middle of the pack, won’t-get-you-into-any-serious-trouble d-man.
That’s our Number 1 guy? Good grief…
I knew we were in trouble when I was waiting and hoping for Matvichuk to come back. When Matti is your savior, you’ve got issues.