NEWARK, N.J. — Is Timo Meier next up for a long term extension with the New Jersey Devils?
The Devils signed Jesper Bratt to an eight-year, $63-million contract last week, and now their attention turns to Meier.
Trey Matthews of Locked on Devils says Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is intent on signing Meier to an eight-year deal of his own.
"Timo knows since I spoke to him (on June 15)," Fitzgerald said Friday, per NHL.com. "He knows how much we want to continue this relationship, long term, and he's reiterated that to me ... this is where he wants to be. He sees himself as a Devil and has asked his agent to negotiate an eight-year deal with us.
"It's music to my ears and we'll continue to kind of chip away at it, but the goal is to have Timo Meier in a Devils uniform for the next eight years."
The trick will be getting him to a agree to a valuation less than what Jack Hughes is making ($8 million), as per the team's desire to keep their star player as the team's highest paid.
Now, Meier is due a qualifying offer of $10 million for one season in order to retain the rights to the restricted free agent.
Matthews is prepared to cross the Hughes salary threshold in order to sign a player of Meier's caliber.
Otherwise, Meier accepts the qualifying offer, plays out the season in New Jersey (or elsewhere if they decide to trade him prior to the deadline) and see what he can get on the open market upon hitting unrestricted free agency.
The Devils cleared some cap space by trading Damon Severson to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they do still have more than $26 million in available cap space after the Bratt signing.
New Jersey does have a number of free agents up front and some holes on defense, but Meier is the priority at the moment, and everything will fall into place afterwards.