Clarkson Signs for Three More in Jersey

The New Jersey Devils saved one of their potential restricted free agents from not having an active contract through the Summer by signing him to a deal on the eve of free agency. David Clarkson was re-signed by the Devils to a new 3-year deal worth $8 million, which works out to be a cap hit of $2.667 million for each of the three seasons. Clarkson possibly would have been a target for an offer sheet, pending what the compensation amounts would be for his price range, but the Devils made sure that they kept him in the fold without any issue.

Clarkson had a pretty rough 2010 season, suffering a broken leg in November, which caused him to miss 13 games and then suffered another leg injury shortly after his return, which kept him out of the line-up for another 23 games. All in all, Clarkson managed to play in 46 games for the Devils, scoring 11 goals and adding 13 assists, giving him a scoring rate of just over half a point-per-game. That point total was good enough to keep him in good shape for the pool rankings, but his production rate should give him a bit more of an edge if you wanted to move him up in your projections.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Zach Parise	Andy Greene	Martin Brodeur
Tomas Zajac	Bryce Salvador
Jamie Langenbrunner	Colin White
Patrik Elias	Anssi Salmela
Jason Arnott
Brian Rolston
Dainius Zubrus
David Clarkson
Vladimir Zharkov
Jay Pandolfo
Pierre Letourneau-Leblond
Andrew Peters

The Devils have reportedly put Jay Pandolfo on unconditional waivers on Wednesday, with the flexibility of possibly buying him out on Thursday, so the salary cap number might not be like this for long, but currently it stands at $48.3 million for the 17 players signed on above, not including any buyouts or penalties that might be already incurred. Even with Pandolfo still in the line-up, the Devils are still in relatively good shape for the Summer, unless they have their eyes on the biggest prize still, Ilya Kovalchuk.