Holik Re-Signs With Devils

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 7, 1998 / 1:13 AM EDT / CBS Sportsline

Center Bobby Holik, who led the New Jersey Devils with 29 goals but saw his season end with a 16-game goal scoring drought and a bout of food poisoning, has signed a three-year contract with the team.

Financial

Related Links

Happy: Wings do business right

Happy: Stars score with Hull

NHL free agents:

Signings

Free-agent list

Forum: Is Holik worth the money?

terms were not disclosed, but it is believed the deal is worth $7.5 million. Holik, who was a Group II restricted free agent, earned $714,000 last season.

The need to retain Holik became more urgent after the Devils lost unrestricted free agent center Doug Gilmour, who signed a three-year, $18 million deal with the Chicago Blackhawks last Friday.

Holik enjoyed the best season of his career, leading the Devils to the Eastern Conference championship in the regular season. But he failed to score in the final 16 games of the regular season and did not dent the net in five games against the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs. He missed Game 6 with food poisoning as the Devils were ousted from the playoffs.

Holik added 36 assists and led the team with 65 points and eight game-winning goals while posting a plus-23, good for second on the squad. In addition, Holik was fourth on the Devils with 100 penalty minutes and did not miss a regular-season game. His slump at the end of the season kept New Jersey from having its first 30-goal scorer since the 1993-94 season.

For his career, the 6-3, 225-pounder has 150 goals and 187 assists for 337 points in 560 games for the Devils and Hartford Whalers, ringing up 535 penalty minutes. In 73 playoff games he has just seven goals and 12 assists.

Other Devils who remain unsigned as Group II free agents are Steve Thomas, Jason Arnott, Denis Pederson, Scott Niedermayer and Petr Sykora.