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Two offseasons ago, Tom Fitzgerald and New Jersey Devils The Devils failed to sign free agent Johnny Gaudreau, and after missing out on the opportunity, they turned to signing 31-year-old Andre Palat to a 5-year, $6 million contract. Given his age and the length of his contract, many believe that this deal could become a liability for the Devils in the 2024-25 season. Forwards in their 30s, especially once they reach their mid-30s, usually see their game decline, and whether Palat can afford a $6 million salary per season as he ages will be a real question.
Well, he’s two years into a five-year contract, but sadly, most would say he hasn’t proven himself worthy of a $6 million per year contract even in his young seasons of age 31 and 32. His 2022-23 season was largely affected by injuries, with only 49 regular season games played, but he did play nearly a full season this past year, appearing in 71 games. In those 120 games, he only scored 19 goals and 54 points total, a 0.45% scoring rate. In comparison, when he was in Tampa, he had 423 points in 628 regular season games, a scoring rate of just over 0.67%. The drop-off in New Jersey compared to Tampa is pretty significant. Yes, he’s older now in New Jersey than he was in his prime, and he’s been injured for a while, so there’s a reason for that. However, he’s making $6 million per season, as good as he was in Tampa, so excuse or not, he’s not living up to his contract at this point.
There is one exception to that last statement, and that was in the playoffs two seasons ago. In 12 games, he scored seven points and played a clutch role when the team needed him. He also often played a clutch role for Tampa in the playoffs, so that is one area where he has been valuable thus far. Yes, this is perhaps the most important area, because if the Devils want to win all their games, they need a player like Palat to play a clutch role in the playoffs. But they also need to get to the playoffs first, and that is one area where Ondrej did not help as much as one would have hoped when he was initially brought in.
A bigger problem with his poor performance during the regular season is that it’s difficult to field a truly capable top-six wing corps without having players who are paid significantly less than Palat perform well. Based on Palat’s contract, the expectation should be that he can be a top-six wing on this team. Sure, maybe he’s not always a top-tier winger, but he can definitely be a capable second-line winger alongside Jack or Nico. But that hasn’t been the case, and while he did see playing time, his performances were more like what you’d expect from a third-line winger making a third of his current salary.
In the current situation, Sheldon Keefe has to make a decision. Does he keep Palat on the second line and hope to see him perform better, perhaps closer to the 0.67 points per game he posted in Tampa? Or does he keep him on the third line for a little while, where his performance currently seems more dependent? If he does, who does he put on the second line? Dawson Mercer? Tomas Tatar? Eric Huala? Stefan Noeson? There are options, but how good are those options? It’s worth thinking about how good those options would be on the third line against weaker competition if Palat can fulfill his $6 million per year contract? If he can do that, it would really stretch the roster and provide more flexibility.
So, with his age-33 season approaching, Palat needs to really prove that he is still, at least in most ways, the same player that he was in Tampa, the player that earned him a huge contract in New Jersey. If he can do that, it will open up a lot of doors for this roster and make life a lot easier for the other stars on this team. However, if he continues to score less than 0.5 points per game, then the new coaching staff will really struggle to try to figure out how to set up lineups and how to create the extra points that will be necessary to keep this team competitive and in the playoffs for all 82 games.
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