Daily Faceoff Show: Which RFA situation will be the most interesting to watch this offseason?
Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna dove into today’s inbox question on the Daily Faceoff Show, asking which RFA situation will be the most interesting to see play out this offseason.
Mike McKenna: “Jesper Bratt. I’m very curious to see what the Devils do with him. He’s their leading scorer this year, 73 points in [76] games, and he’s turning 24 over the summer. So, is this somebody you’re going to look at amongst your core?
You got Hughes, you got Hischier tied up very long term, Dougie Hamilton as well. I think that Bratt drove an awful lot of the offense for the Devils, and that’s obvious in the point totals, but it’s the way he plays. I think he plays really hard, plays well, it’s a guy I’d want to keep, but is he going to be $6.5 million, is he going to be $7 million, maybe more?
The key for me on this one is term. I think it could be really interesting to see how long the Devils go should they choose to retain Bratt, which I absolutely would, I would expect them to. How about you, is there anybody from this list that stands out?”
Tyler Yaremchuk: “Yeah, well I had Bratt written down as well, just because off this list, he’s probably, you could argue, the least famous name when you go outside of these team’s markets. Tkachuk, Fiala, Robertson, Dubois, these guys get talked about a ton, and Bratt’s just kind of ‘Ho-hum, I’m almost a point-per-game at 23 years old.’ And you look at how much money they gave Hughes, and I would imagine Bratt looked at that deal and said ‘Hey, I produce just as much, I should be up in that range as well.’
So that’ll be fascinating to see. Do they want to go long term with him, and buck up, and give him $6.5 million or even more on a long term deal? Or will the Devils sit there and go ‘we have so many young forwards’, and even more guys coming with Holtz in their system, do they sit there and go ‘You know what, we need the money to get some vets in here’?
Like, if they want to take the next step, do they look at this and go ‘Maybe we bridge Bratt, get the AAV down’. They do have a lot of money to spend this offseason, do they just bridge him, and then do they go and get a vet with some of the money they saved there.”
You can watch the full episode here…