The New Jersey Devils avoided a salary arbitration hearing with Adam Larsson by signing the defenceman to a six-year, $25 million contract on Saturday.
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The team announced the salary breakdown as follows: 2015-16, $2.5 million; 2016-17, $3 million; 2017-18, $4.5 million; 2018-19, $4.85 million; 2019-20, $5.05 million; 2020-21, $5.1 million. He also appeared in one game for Albany of the American Hockey League while on a conditioning stint. In 64 games last season, he battled the mumps and sat in the press box as a healthy scratch.
The 22-year-old Swede joined the Devils for the 2011-12 season. Later in the season, and especially under the three-headed coaching staff of Scott Stevens, Adam Oates and Lamoriello after Peter DeBoer was fired, the slate was wiped clean and Larsson emerged. His scoring totals were all career highs.
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Larsson has plenty of potential and has shown flashes of being a reliable top-pairing defnseman in the league, but the Devils are definitely paying for potential.
