New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero wrapped up a pretty busy offseason on Monday morning with the report that the team has signed restricted free agent defenseman Damon Severson to a six-year contract.
The contract will pay him a total of $25 million.
Following the trade of Adam Larsson to Edmonton last summer, Severson took on a significantly larger role on the Devils’ blue line this season. He became a 20-minute per night play and basically replaced Larsson’s role and production on defense.
He appeared in 80 games for the Devils, averaging more than 20 minutes of ice-time per game, and scoring three goals to go with 28 assists. He is only 23 years old so he should just now be entering the prime of his career for the Devils. The contract might look like a bit of an overpay in the beginning, but if he continues on his current path and takes another step forward this year it should be a fair long-term deal for both Severson and the team.
With Severson’s deal now completed the Devils can enter training camp this week wrapping up a strong offseason that has seen them add Marcus Johansson, Brian Boyle, Drew Stafford, and the top pick in the draft, Nico Hischier.
Now that Severson is signed the top remaining restricted free agents are David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins), Marcus Foligno (Minnesota Wild), Nikita Zadorov (Colorado Avalanche) and Andreas Athanasiou (Detroit Red Wings).