Barely seventy-two hours before the 2013 season officially gets underway, Devil fans got some unexpected good news when GM Lou Lamoriello announced that key pivotman Travis Zajac signed a max-term extension to stay in New Jersey for the next eight seasons – nine total counting this last year on his previous contract signed as an RFA.  Locking a two-way center such as Zajac up before he went UFA was absolutely critical for this franchise, especially now as the team is still trying to recover from losing captain Zach Parise (a.k.a Mr. Minnesota) last offseason.

Zajac’s deal, and the way I received the news both represent a changing world – in and out of hockey.  It was just another day at work and I was refreshing Twitter on my phone a couple of hours ago.  I only follow a limited number of hockey people – most of the reknown insiders like Bob McKenzie, Renaud Laviole and of course Tom Gulitti, the Devils’ beat writer for The Record and author of the popular Fire & Ice blog relating to the team.  After refreshing it once I was scrolling past and suddenly saw this tweet out of nowhere:

Tom Gulitti ‏@TGfireandice

WHAAAA! was my initial reaction…in a good way, of course.  It turned out Lamoriello met the press during one of the intermissions of a team scrimmage this afternoon and broke the news himself without even the remote hint of a leak beforehand (well, some things never really do change, do they?).

But think about how fast news travels these days compared to even five-ten years ago.  As much as I was annoyed at Twitter during the lockout because of all the conflicting information/rumors that got reported, it’s quite useful for breaking actual news and getting it out there.  If it wasn’t for Twitter and the Internet, we would be lucky to hear a report of this on the radio.  And if it wasn’t for phones being able to connect to the Internet and Twitter, I probably wouldn’t have found out about this deal until now since unlike Derek (who to his credit broke the news ‘here’), I was not listening to WFAN today.  Little harder to listen to local sports radio when your teams aren’t playing or being covered.

As far as how the hockey world’s changed, obviously this deal was the first example of a player getting max years and re-upping before FA under the new CBA.  Would this deal have been possible before the new CBA’s term limit restrictions?  Possibly, assuming you take the Devils’ GM at his word that the bulk of negotiations happened before the lockout.  However, the new term limits (seven years if you’re signing with another team, eight if you’re re-signing with your own) certainly provide more of an incentive for Travis to re-up when you factor in that even a good year for Zajac meant he would have had to get nearly $7 million per year to top the Devils’ offer financially because they could offer the extra year – and $7 million is unlikely for almost any FA next offseason given the decreasing cap.

Make no mistake, this is certainly a win-win for both player and team.  Travis gets some long-term security after a subpar year two years ago following an injury-plagued season last year (though before that, Zajac had set a team record for consecutive games played so it’s not like injuries are a constant issue), while the Devils lock up their most important UFA of this offseason early, and one of their most important players period.  It’s no accident the Devils went from being an afterthought for most of 2011-12 to a real contender once Zajac came back and had a big playoff year, starting with the crucial OT goal in Game 6 against Florida in last year’s first round – see above video.

That moment really signaled the beginning of what turned out to be a fun Spring.  Given Zajac’s offensive and defensive ability, plus the fact he’s the top faceoff man on the team and plays in all situations, he would have been next to impossible to replace.  Certainly Lamoriello recognized Zajac’s value with this contract, locking the Winnipeg native up until his 35th birthday:

“He’s developed himself into an all-sitiuation complete player,” Lamoriello said. “He’s one of our core leaders. He has been from Day One. His play in the playoffs was certainly monumental for us. Him coming back was very evident to what he means.”

Even the contract structure reflects a brave, new world for the NHL.

2013-14   $3.5 million (inc. $1 million signing bonus)
2014-15   $5 million (inc. $1 million signing bonus)
2015-16   $6.5 million
2016-17   $6.5 million
2017-18   $6.5 million
2018-19   $6.5 million
2019-20   $5.75 million
2020-21   $5.75 million

Although the 2013-14 figure is lower (presumably because of worries over escrow payments next year), it’s a deal that does exactly what the NHL set out to do with its latest CBA – eliminating artifically low cap hit seasons, while still providing flexibility for teams and players to move around money a little bit.  Zajac’s deal also includes a full no-trade clause that will go into effect immediately…a result of some of Paul Holmgren‘s deals in Philly during the last CBA where no fewer than three players re-upped long-term only to be traded before their NMC extensions kicked in.

While it would seem that the FA question marks of Patrik Elias, David Clarkson and Danius Zubrus will be left until after the season, that’s okay.  As Lou himself said ‘they know what we think of them’ and they should get fair offers this offseason as well, unless one surprisingly signs in the next 72 hours since the team policy of not re-upping guys during the season (sans Martin Brodeur several years ago) remains in effect.

Interestingly, there’s still some actual suspense over who’s going to be named captain as well.  During the offseason, it seemed a fait accompli Ilya Kovalchuk would get the C once Parise bolted for riches back home, but the Star-Ledger’s Rich Chere implied that defenseman Bryce Salvador could be named the C.  And with news of this deal, some even think that Zajac himself may get the C.  Whoever winds up getting the C – and there will be a decision announced by the end of camp – at least we’ll know that player is here for the next few years and wants to be here.