Devils press conference

[Flickered Flame]

Swampy Times

Meadowlands-Devils GM Mike Walsh called late evening press conference on Saturday to announce that the Devils have resigned goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to along term deal. The Devils have signed Nabby to a 3 year contract worth 22.5 million dollars for a total of 7.5 million per season.

"We are very happy that we Evgeni for the long term, goaltending is the key to success in the CPHL and we feel that we have one of the best tenders in the league who will continue to get better as we get better as a team, we want to thank his rep for negotiating with us before Nabby's free agency kicked in at the end of the year. Evgeni's new contract will kick into place immediately" Walsh said.

Nabokov in Tampa released the following statement:

"My family and I enjoy it in Jersey and were thrilled to have the
commitment made to us. We were thinking that we could have gotten at
least one million more annually by going on the open market, but in
order to give us some stablity and to help the Devils add players to
help win, that this mad a lot of sense for me."

Nabokov's stats as a Devil:

12games- 4 wins- 5 losses- 3 ties- 32 GA- 679 mins- 2.82 GAA- .901 save%

The deal is of course still pending league approval but should be approved on Sunday

[JiriHrdina]

That's a nice signing by the Devils. At 7.5 million he's one of the highest paid goalie but the Devils had little choice but to give him that salary given what he was already making. Surely Nabakov would have been one of, if not THE most highly sought of free agent this off-season. Smart of the Devs to lock him up.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally posted by JiriHrdina@Dec 19 2004, 05:08 PM
That's a nice signing by the Devils. At 7.5 million he's one of the highest paid goalie but the Devils had little choice but to give him that salary given what he was already making. Surely Nabakov would have been one of, if not THE most highly sought of free agent this off-season. Smart of the Devs to lock him up.

Agreed, theres about 3 or 4 teams that will have a lot to spend on free agents if they want, and they all need a number one tender. By locking him up, Mike now knows what he'll have to spend to improve his team for next year. It also does help his trade value a bit too if he wants to go that route.