Breaking: Wayne Simmonds makes a very surprising choice in free agency.

This could very well go down as one of the very best signings of the day.

As many of you will know long time member of the Philadelphia Flyers organization Wayne Simmonds was set to hit the free agent market today after he was unable to come to terms on a new deal with the Nashville Predators following his trade to that organization at the 2019 National Hockey League trade deadline. Simmonds did hit the open market in fact but only managed to stay there for a few short minutes, and instead has chosen to sign a rather surprising contract offer.

According to an official announcement from the New Jersey Devils organization, general manager Ray Shero has pulled off quite the coup and has signed Simmonds for an average annual value of $5 million, but only on a 1 year contract term. To get Simmonds under contract and only have to pay out 1 year of contract term is a rather stunning turn of events and it suggests to me that Simmonds was getting offered dollars on contracts with term.

Simmonds is coming off a down year in which he was devastated by lower body injuries and given his physical playing style and advanced age I think he would have been hard pressed to find a team willing to commit big dollars to him on a long term deal. This seems like a case of a player betting on himself and if Simmonds is able to have a good season with the Devils this time around it could lead to a much bigger pay day next summer. On top of that the NHL is only 2 years away from signing a brand new U.S. T.V. deal which could drastically increase revenues, and not being locked up to a contract at that point could prove to be very lucrative for players.

Additionally Simmonds is joining a roster that has added a lot of talent over the past several days, with names like Jack Hughes and P.K. Subban joining their ranks, so it would seem to be an ideal fit for him to showcase his skills. He should have plenty of quality players around him to set up, or vice versa, and that means we will get to see if Simmonds really has regressed or if injuries were a bigger factor than was believed.