Former Tampa Bay Lightning winger Ondrej Palat agrees to 5-year, $30 million NHL deal with New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devil agreed to the terms with former Tampa Bay Lightning winger Ondrej Palatbrought a veteran Stanley Cup champion into their young forward squad.

A source told ESPN, The Devils landed Palat on a five-year contract with an average annual value of $6 million.

Palat, 31, has played his entire 10-year career with the Lightning, scoring 143 goals and 280 assists in 628 games. He is known as a stable two-way player with versatility: able to play on both flanks as well as up and down the squad, thriving with highly skilled players and both a player.

He also excelled as a post-season performer. Palat had 31 points from 48 games in consecutive Stanley Cup wins with Lightning. He had 21 points in 23 games for them after last season when they lost Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final, including three winning goals.

The demons have made it to the knockout stages once in the last 10 years, not since 2018.

Palat is one of only three strikers over the age of 30 on the current Reds roster.

Devils are one of the teams that lost to superstars in terms of freestyle wingers Johnny Gaudreau on Wednesdays when the NHL free agent is open, like Flames used to be chose to sign instead with Columbus blue jacket.