Bratt agrees to 8-year, $63 million contract with Devils

Jesper Bratt agreed to an eight-year, $63 million contract with the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. It has an average annual value of $7.875 million.

The 24-year-old forward tied his NHL career high with 73 points (32 goals, 41 assists) in 82 regular-season games for the Devils this season and had six points (one goal, five assists) in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Bratt could have become a restricted free agent July 1.

New Jersey (52-22-8), which finished with the most wins and points (112) in its history, was eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference Second Round.

"This is the deal I wanted and I'm really excited," Bratt said Friday. "I'm just so happy we could get it done. ...Obviously that was kind of my main focus, to be here for a long time to keep that going. We have so many positive things from what happened this year and when I looked at a team, looked at my teammates with long-term deals and all that stuff, I knew that we have something really good to build on for a lot of years.

"The eight-year deal was something that we were really pushing for, and I was very honest with my agent and he was honest with [Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald] that we were trusting the process. ... I wanted to be here for a long time to grow this and we really wanted to kind of team-build this together. Even 'Fitzy,' to get this deal done, was best for me as an individual but also to fit the team's criteria to do everything we can to win a Cup."

Bratt signed a one-year, $5.45 million contract with the Devils on Aug. 3, 2022, to avoid an arbitration hearing with the sides unable to agree on a long-term deal.

Selected by New Jersey in the sixth round (No. 162) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Bratt has 276 points (102 goals, 174 assists) in 389 regular-season games, and six points in 13 playoff games.

"I suppose just the value in knowing throughout this whole process that he's always expressed the desire to want to be part of something here, it says a lot about this young individual and his passion for this organization," Fitzgerald said. "In the New Jersey area, he calls it home. This is where he wanted to be, this is where we wanted him to be. We think we're just a perfect fit.

"Business is business, and negotiations are exactly what the definition says … two sides trying to get to the middle and compromise on something that makes sense for both sides, and that's exactly what happened here. So Jesper, his desire to want to be here really helped the process and obviously our desire to keeping him here, long term, was a mutual agreement."

With Bratt signed, New Jersey has seven players who can become restricted free agents July 1 (forwards Nathan Bastian, Jesper Boqvist, Michael McLeod, Timo Meier and Yegor Sharangovich, defenseman Kevin Bahl, goalie Mackenzie Blackwood), and four who can become unrestricted free agents (forwards Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar and Miles Wood, defenseman Ryan Graves).

New Jersey signed defenseman Damon Severson, the longest-tenured player on the team (nine seasons), to an eight-year, $50 million contract ($6.25 million AAV) before trading him to the Columbus Blue Jackets on June 7 for a third-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Severson could have become a unrestricted free agent.

NHL.com staff writer Mike G. Morreale contributed to this report