While reading up at Gulitti's Fire and Ice, a commenter, elia, posted this news story by Tomas Ras of Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's biggest news papers. Gulitti is looking to confirm this, who knows if he'll have anything today - but he says it does roughly translate to about $3 million/year. I normally don't do something like this. However, it's not like this is some random, no-name, no-credibility site breaking this - it's Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's biggest sources for news.
Here's the article in it's original language. The following is a translation from Google.
Oduya extends with Devils
MONTREAL. Johnny Oduya stops in New Jersey Devils.
- And receive multi-million lift
A contract extension will be published shortly.
Oduya highlights salary from 4.7 million to about 24 million.
27-year-old Johnny Oduya was a late Bloomer and it was not until last winter that he got his breakthrough in the NHL. But now he is ranked as one of the hottest slopes in the upcoming free agent market. But it will not Oduya to reach. He has negotiated with New Jersey Devils over the last two weeks, and soon becomes a new contract done.
It is worth just over 24 million per year and provides Oduya a hefty wage.
Last season he earned 4.7 million, but was then sharply during paid given that he sometimes played over 20 minutes per match in the New Jersey Devils.
Tomas Ros
Clumsy translation aside, the important matter is that Oduya is about to be re-signed, becoming official on July 1, of course.
As far as the amount of this reported extension, 24 million kronor works out to $3,067,308.25 according to a conversion at XE.com; so I can see it ending up at $3 or $3.1 million/year. Back in May, writing about his free agent status and why the Devils should keep him, I was concerned someone would throw $4 million/year or more at him; and I even suggested that $3.5 million/year would be necessary for Oduya to stay. While Ros does not mention how long the deal will be; his reporting of a $3 million/year contract is definitely worth it for Oduya and it's definitely good news for the Devils going into the free agency portion of this offseason.
I will update this when I see confirmation elsewhere (e.g. Gulitti, Chere, other news sites, etc.). If this does not turn out to be true, I will also update it accordingly.
UNFORTUNATE UPDATE: Gulitti got in touch with Lou today and, well, Lou put it very succinctly:
Well, Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said he was aware of the reports too and did not confirm either.
"No, there is nothing ofificial," he said.
When I asked if "nothing official" meant that the sides had agreed to deal, but it just had not been signed and registered yet or anything like that, he said, "No. There is nothing that has been done."
That said, it is clear that there have been talks between the Devils and Oduya. Lamoriello would not speculate, however, when I asked him whether Oduya would be re-signed before he can become an unrestricted free agent at noon on Wednesday.
Truth be told, I don't think Aftonbladet would report anything based on nothing. And Lou is notorious for revealing as little as possible. Then again, Lou would know better than anyone else whether there is a deal in place; and he just told Gulitti straight up that nothing has been done. Either Lou is denying this and initial reports are true, or nothing really has been done. We will find out later, unfortunately. I apologize for getting your hopes up (truth be told, I was hoping it'd be confirmed too.)