Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Devils Ink Brunner

The New Jersey Devils jumped on the opportunity to have former Red Wings forward, Damien Brunner, join their training camp roster this Fall, as they had reportedly been in contact with the unrestricted free agent in the Summer, after July 1st.  Brunner went to camp and had impressed the brass enough to earn himself a brand new contract, which he signed on Tuesday.

The early reports are saying that Brunner signed a 2-year deal, worth $5 million.  The $2.5 million cap hit over the next couple of seasons is very team-friendly and if he can produce around the 35-point mark, he should be well worth the money.

In 2013 with Detroit, Brunner finished 160th overall in pool scoring (114th among forwards) with 12 goals and 14 assists in 44 games.  That works out to be a scoring rate of 0.59 points per game, which will get you noticed among all the poolies and you'll get picked in drafts.

ImplicationsOf course, that's exactly what happened. Brunner was taken by Doug in the draft this year, taking him in the 10th round, 229th overall.  The drop in draft position versus where he finished last season was due to him being unsigned, although he was making waves with the Devils at the time of the draft, but hesitation loomed and Doug snapped him up late.  A good season with the Devils can certainly turn into a good 10th round bargain.

The early standings are being sorted by the projected number of games to be played by the players for each team in Week One, which brings Doug up to a tie for 23rd (out of 24) with 27 projected games.  Doug lost the services of Sam Gagner to a broken jaw, which took away his games, but I'm sure he will be able to make up those games before too long.

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