Parise Signs 1-year Deal

The New Jersey Devils likely didn't want to go to arbitration with Zach Parise, probably because they would have taken a pretty good beating, despite an injury-filled 2011 season. It has been said that Parise wants to stay in New Jersey, but with another long-term superstar contract already on the books, it is going to be a struggle to have two top end scorers being paid for the long-term and have it work out for the rest of the team. Well, to avoid arbitration, a small step in the bigger picture, the Devils and Parise agreed upon a 1-year deal, reportedly worth $6 million, for the 2012 season, working towards fitting in with a long-term deal.

A major knee injury was a major disappointment in Parise's 2011 season, limiting the scoring winger to only 13 games, 12 games at the beginning of the season, before the injury, returned for one game and then shut the season down with only four games left in a disappointing Devils year.  In the 13 games played, Parise picked up 3 goals and 3 assists, so his numbers going into the 2012 season can only get better from here.

In 2009, Parise picked up 94 points in all 82 games and in 2010, he was good for 82 points in 81 games, so he should expect to still be a 1st round pick or possibly an early 2nd round pick in most fantasy drafts.  The only question going into this season, much like last season, will both Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk co-exist together and help the team succeed?

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Patrik Elias	Andy Greene	Martin Brodeur
Ilya Kovalchuk	Henrik Tallinder	Johan Hedberg
Travis Zajac	Mark Fayne
Dainius Zubrus	Anton Volchenkov
Mattias Tedenby	Colin White
David Clarkson
Nick Palmieri
David Steckel
Eric Boulton
Rod Pelley
Zach Parise
Cam Janssen
Trent Hunter

The Devils are rounding into form about now, now having all of their top forwards signed on and possibly some work needed to structure their blueline.  Nevertheless, this is the bulk of what we should see in the 2012 season for the Devils.

Currently, I have the Devils working with 13 forwards, five defensemen, two goalies and two buyouts on their books for a projected annual total of $56.8 million against the cap, leaving them a shade over $7.5 million left for a couple of defensemen on their roster. The trade that sent Brian Rolston to Long Island went a long way to help settle their salary cap situation, giving the Devils all kinds of flexibility during the regular season.