On Kurtis MacDermid's contract extension
The Devils inked the enforcer to a three-year deal on Friday.
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The New Jersey Devils signed pending unrestricted free agent Kurtis MacDermid to a contract extension on Friday. That was hardly surprising.
Tom Fitzgerald acquired MacDermid because he felt certain players (looking at you, Matt Rempe) were taking advantage of the Devils and they didn’t have anyone to respond.
Regardless of how you feel about players like MacDermid, the reality is he’s more willing to step into the fire and stand up for teammates than anybody on the roster. That’s not nothing.
Although the cost of acquisition was low, Fitzgerald didn’t acquire MacDermid only to walk away from him two months later and go back to square one
Nothing has really changed with the Devils since the initial trade. If Fitzgerald deemed the additional toughness necessary in March, there wasn’t any reason to expect him to feel differently now.
As such, I fully expected the Devils to bring MacDermid back. I just didn’t think he’d get that kind of term.
Depth players don’t often get three-year contracts. For an enforcer to land that commitment is almost unheard of in this era. Even so, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
MacDermid’s only going to play his five minutes against specific opponents, be it physical teams or rivals.
That’ll open up opportunities for guys like Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt to see additional shifts. Quite frankly, five minutes of MacDermid plus extra ice for the stars might well be a net positive over a run-of-the-mill 4th liner getting 8-10 minutes.
MacDermid will also sit in the press box on plenty of nights and have no problem doing so.
When injuries inevitably arise, the Devils can always recall players who better fit the role needed to be filled and have said players jump him on the depth chart.
Let’s say Alex Holtz gets injured for a few weeks. MacDermid isn’t moving up to fill that spot. Someone more talented from Utica would be recalled and get that nod.
At the end of the day, I don’t see the contract causing much headache for the Devils. They can bury his salary without much problem if and when deemed necessary.
Credit where it’s due, though. MacDermid’s team did a good job leveraging the Devils’ want for #grit – they announced they valued him the day they made the trade – into a nice payday on what could well be his last NHL contract. It was an ‘if you value what he brings, prove it’ kind of thing.
The Devils did – and that’s fine.
It's like what a couple hundred thou over the league minimum for a vet that provides protection and does face punching (and receives them.) Chill out.
IMHO, Fitz gave him the term because it will make it easier to send him to the minors, as other teams won't want to pick up the term even with a relatively low salary. And when he is in the minors, his cap hit is completely buried. So, really, this deal is perfectly fine. We can send him down any time we want, at least this year when there's plenty of term remaining, and call him up anytime we need him, and when he'd down on the farm his salary will not affect the Devs cap at all. I'm fine with it.