After filing for salary arbitration, the New Jersey Devils and high-profile RFA Timo Meier have agreed to an eight-year contact extension. The full contract is for $70.4 million with an AAV of $8.8 million with a breakdown that is a little more complicated: 2023-24: $12,000,000; 2024-25: $11,100,000; 2025-26: $10,750,000; 2026-27: $7,750,000; 2027-28: $7,200,000; 2028-29: $7,200,000; 2029-30: $7,200,000; 2030-31: $7,200,000. Meier also secured a full no trade clause for the first six years of the eight year contract.
When traded to the Devils earlier this year, Meier had this to say about his game “I’m kind of your typical power forward,” he said. “I like to shoot the puck and try to get to the net, those areas where I can be a threat to score. I like to play a 200-foot game and add my physicality. I think that’s kind of my mentality. I’m going to try to be the best Timo Meier I can be for the New Jersey Devils.”
And obviously the team was high on him from the beginning. “It’s the skill set, the ability to score goals, and the body size. Size helps,” Fitzgerald said. “It was something I think we all believed we could add. We’re not overly big at the forward group, but he helps make us a bigger, stronger team. He’s a power forward, gets to the net, is tough to move away from the net, holds pucks down low, can skate, drives to the net. Just small things like that … they add up to be a player that you admire and say, ‘I want that on my team.’ That’s what Timo Meyer brings.”
This is a great deal for both the Devils and Timo Meier, the talent is locked up long term and the production will follow.