The New Jersey Devils signed restricted free agent forward Kyle Palmieri to a new five-year, $23.25 million contract on Thursday morning, a deal that could compare similarly to what Brayden Schenn ultimately gets from the Philadelphia Flyers.
Palmieri and Schenn are similar players in a lot of ways. Both are about to enter their 25-year-old seasons, both are in RFA this summer, and both are coming off of seasons in which they scored right in the ballpark of 30 goals and 30 assists.
| Season | GP | G | A | Pts | Season | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 2013-14 Schenn | 82 | 20 | 21 | 41 | 2013-14 Palmieri | 71 | 14 | 17 | 31 |
| 2014-15 Schenn | 82 | 18 | 29 | 47 | 2014-15 Palmieri | 57 | 14 | 15 | 29 |
| 2015-16 Schenn | 80 | 26 | 33 | 59 | 2015-16 Palmieri | 82 | 30 | 27 | 57 |
And last year in particular, they really couldn’t have been more similar:
Schenn’s scoring was a little more balanced, with emphasis on both goal scoring and primary assists, while Palmieri inflated his numbers a bit with secondary assists but was productive to the level of a first-line player in his goal numbers.
The outlook is really the same with both players, though: these are a pair of talented, well-rounded secondish liners who are the same age, play in the same division and are both at the same points in their careers.
Schenn has been a more productive player for longer than Palmieri has, scoring more than 40 points in both 2013-14 and 2014-15, while Palmieri only broke that barrier for the first time this past year.
But free agency is often a case of what have you done for me lately, and a lot of these deals are made in large part based on the most immediate season on record. I could see Schenn maybe getting a slightly larger contract than Palmieri, but just given how similar these players are in so many ways, I can’t imagine it being too much more beyond that. In fact, you could even foresee an argument that Palmieri is more valuable to the Devils than Schenn is to the Flyers purely because Palmieri was their leading scorer last year.
Here are some other comparable deals, with help from General Fanager. Mikkel Boedker is the only player on the list below who signed his contract as an unrestricted free agent. All the others were RFA.
| Contract Years | Player | Pos | Signing Age | Contract Length | Cap Hit | Goals* | Assists* | Points* |
| 2013-2018 | Wayne Simmonds | RW | 25 | 6 years | $3,975,000 | 15 | 17 | 32 |
| 2016-2019 | Mikkel Boedker | LW | 26 | 4 years | $4,000,000 | 17 | 34 | 51 |
| 2015-2020 | Nick Bjugstad | C | 23 | 6 years | $4,100,000 | 24 | 19 | 43 |
| 2015-2019 | Craig Smith | C | 26 | 5 years | $4,250,000 | 23 | 21 | 44 |
| 2016-2021 | Nazem Kadri | C | 25 | 6 years | $4,500,000 | 17 | 28 | 45 |
| 2013-2016 | Brad Marchand | LW | 25 | 4 years | $4,500,000 | 18 | 18 | 36 |
| 2013-2018 | Max Pacioretty | LW | 24 | 6 years | $4,500,000 | 15 | 24 | 39 |
| 2014-2018 | Tyler Ennis | C | 24 | 5 years | $4,600,000 | 21 | 22 | 43 |
| 2013-2017 | Bryan Little | C | 25 | 5 years | $4,700,000 | 24 | 22 | 46 |
| 2016-2021 | Vincent Trocheck | C | 23 | 6 years | $4,750,000 | 25 | 28 | 53 |
| 2016 – ?? | Brayden Schenn | C/W | 24 | ?? | ?? | 26 | 33 | 59 |
| *stats are for the season before the deal went into effect | ||||||||
So, five or six years at an average annual value of somewhere between $4.5 million and $5 million for Brayden Schenn? It’d compare well with the six-year, $4.3 million per year deal that Sean Couturier signed a year ago. Seems like that’s where this will land — assuming the two sides make a deal before heading to arbitration.
