The Devils can rest assured that Zach Parise will be playing for them next season.
The club filed for salary arbitration yesterday to keep the 26-year-old out of restricted free agency July 1.
“It’s our intention to work towards signing him long-term,” general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “It represents a commitment. There’s no question we want Zach here long-term. He knows he will be with us, and everybody will be more relaxed.”
The sides are expected to take their arguments to an arbitrator in late July or early August. An arbitrator may only make a one-year award in this situation, which would allow Parise to become unrestricted July 1, 2012.
In November, The Post first detailed the likelihood of the Devils’ request for salary arbitration to prevent other teams from making Group 2 offers for Parise.
Teams have infrequently sought salary arbitration, since Group 2 offer sheets have been rare after the 2005 CBA went into effect. The Panthers sought arbitration with Roberto Luongo and Sharks with Alexander Korolyuk in 2005; the Rangers with Henrik Lundqvist, the Wild with Derek Boogaard and the Flyers with Joni Pitkanen in 2007; the Penguins with Marc-Andre Fleury and the Kings with Erik Ersberg in 2008; the Wild with Josh Harding in 2009; and the Sabres with Patrick Kaleta last summer.
Arbitration for Parise could be contentious since he played only one game after sustaining a knee injury last season, when he made $5 million. He went 3-3-6 in 13 games last year before undergoing surgery on Nov. 2, missing 65 straight thereafter.
However, Lamoriello said the surgery will not be an arbitration issue.
“There is no agenda here whatsoever. We’re simply using the system to protect our interests,” Lamoriello said.
Parise is the only player to score 30 goals in four straight seasons as a Devil, and totaled 160 in the four seasons from 2006-07 to 2009-10.
The CBA stipulates the least an arbitrator can award Parise for the coming season is 85 percent of his last salary, meaning $4.25 million. Parise may ask for $7 million. The Devils have no walk-away rights.
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Lamoriello stressed that AHL first-team All-Star defenseman Maxim Noreau, acquired Thursday from Minnesota in a trade for forward David McIntyre, is a “puck-moving defenseman” who “has some shot.” Noreau led all AHL defensemen in power-play points last season, and, though Lamoriello would not predict his future with New Jersey, the Devils are in need of power play-oriented defensemen.