At this point, it appears inevitable that the Devils will file for team-elected arbitration before next week’s deadline, which will either be 5 p.m. Wednesday or next Friday if there is a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Filing for team-elected arbitration would prevent Parise from fielding offer sheets from other teams if he’s still unsigned at noon on July 1, when he’d become a restricted free agent.

Presisely what I expected would happen - Lou doesn't want to deal with the prospect of an over-pay offer sheet that could drive up the price tag - so he's going to preempt that possibility and file for arbitration. A good read from Tom Gulitti (Andrew Gross' counterpart for the Devils) - which goes on to say that there's nothing preventing negotiations and a deal before the arb hearing takes place.

Link:Tom Gulitti on Devils/Parise