New Jersey Devils Re-Sign Cody Glass to Two-Year, $2.5M Contract

Just a few hours after Tom Fitzgerald’s meeting with the press, he has signed Cody Glass to a two-year deal at his QO number.

We have come a long way in a short time, from hemming and hawing about whether the New Jersey Devils would even qualify Cody Glass, to the Devils qualifying him, to them re-signing him today. See the team’s post below:

Devils Get Glass For Two Years at His QO Number

Per PuckPedia, the deal is for two years and an annual average value of $2.5 million. While Tom Fitzgerald was rumored to hope, prior to free agency, that he could sign Glass for less than that qualifying offer, that proved to be an impossibility in this market. With so few options available on the free agent market, Glass could have gotten a nice payday from a team with more cap space, leading to his eventual qualification and the re-signing we see today. And before you go: oh, great, now Cody Glass is getting overpaid, consider that the second year on his deal eats his first UFA season. Had Glass signed a one-year deal at the same price, he likely would have been lost next July. The first year might be a little too pricey for his prior production, but I would much rather the team pay him a few extra hundred thousand dollars than exchange him for an older, slower, worse option at center.

If you say the Devils need guys who win faceoffs, Cody Glass helps out. Over the last three seasons, Glass had a combined 49.7 faceoff win percentage (704 wins and 713 losses), topping out at 51.2% this season. This gives the Devils a bottom six faceoff replacement for Curtis Lazar (51.3% this season), who signed with Edmonton today. The Devils will still be looking for guys to win draws with Haula also missing from the middle six (he had a 52.6% win rate with the second most draws taken, behind Hischier, in 2024-25), but Glass should be able to at least fill the need for right-handed draw wins. Other Devils who took a notable amount of draws include:

• Dawson Mercer, 96 wins and 141 losses (40.5%)
• Paul Cotter, 41 wins and 37 losses (52.6%)
• Stefan Noesen, 41 wins and 44 losses (48.2%)

Over the last three seasons, Glass has also averaged 12 goals and 20 assists per 82 regular season games played. He has historically not been an amazing finisher with an 8.9% career shooting percentage, but showed chemistry with a few Devils last season, putting up two goals and five assists in 14 games. Glass needs to get to the net with a bit more efficiency if he wants to improve his goal scoring, given his below average shot, but he is a good passer and a responsible two-way player. In HockeyViz’s player evaluation model, Glass grades as a high-end third-line center because of his strong defensive impact. Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM model, shown below (compared to Dowling), agrees. And at 6’3” and over 200 pounds, Glass has the size to withstand the burdens of being a bottom six center.

Evolving-Hockey

While Glass showed most chemistry with Jesper Bratt (who doesn’t?), Erik Haula, and Daniel Sprong last year, he will have to work with new linemates this season. Glass would be best paired with offensive wingers who can shoot well, as he handles a lot of other details as a center with a strong two-hundred foot game. He should not hold his linemates back from scoring, given his ability to distribute the puck, and the Devils have been adding players to their roster who can chip in goals in those bottom six roles.

Salary Cap Implications

The real issue now is the salary cup. According to PuckPedia, the Devils’ roster is all but set, with just Luke Hughes needing a contract. After Seamus Casey ($950,000) is sent to Utica, the Devils will have approximately $7,044,167 in cap space, with 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and three goaltenders. But that number will decrease to about $6,932,167 if Nico Daws is exchanged for Arseni Gritsyuk on the active roster. Does anyone think the Luke Hughes extension will come in at that number?

I have been expecting that, at minimum, Luke Hughes will get an eight-year contract worth $8 million per season, matching his older brother, Jack. Even then, market conditions indicate that $8 million might be too little for a defenseman of his caliber. Of course, Luke Hughes is absolutely welcome to take a team-friendly deal, but I have to wonder what the plan is if he does assert, at least to some extent, that he should be paid in accordance with what other players are getting around the league. As Tom Fitzgerald said in his press conference today, Luke Hughes’s extension is the top priority. If this means signing him to a shorter bridge contract, I expect anxieties to shoot through the roof among Devils fans, especially given Jim Rutherford’s very public comments on the Hughes brothers.

Of course, Jared also mentioned ways to clear cap space in his article today. The first involved moving Palat, and the less savory choice is trading Dougie Hamilton. I do not want to see Hamilton go. I think he is far too important to the team: its identity, culture, and offense. The only issue with Glass’s contract today is that it eliminates the possibility of the Devils having a second buyout window after an arbitration settlement*, which Glass or the Devils could have filed for. At that point, the team very well could have bought out Palat if they deemed it necessary to manage Hughes’s extension.

* 5:00 PM Edit: Jared and Twitter user @kranman85 corrected me here, as I overlooked that the newly-acquired Thomas Bordeleau is arbitration eligible. While I do not expect Bordeleau to elect arbitration (only 14 players did so last year), the Devils are allowed to file for arbitration on their end. Bordeleau would still be able to accept his qualifying offer, which was originally tendered by San Jose, in addition to his right to accept an offer sheet. Either of those outcomes would negate the arbitration filing, which can be made by the Devils on July 5.

So the New Jersey Devils are now (*largely) left with just the trade market as an avenue for clearing cap space. If Tom Fitzgerald’s offseason is to be a true success, I believe he still has to trade Ondrej Palat so he can sign Luke Hughes to that max-term extension and acquire another player who can handle center duties (or, at the very least, someone who can take faceoffs). I know some people will not have the patience to see how this plays out, but there is still time to do what is necessary this summer.

My Last Thoughts

I am very happy that Cody Glass is back with the team, especially considering how worried I was that the team would lose him for nothing after acquiring him for a third-round pick, among other minor assets. He gives the Devils balance down the middle with a strong defensive game and is still young enough to grow into a better player than he is today. At just 26 years old, Glass is the second-oldest center on the team, as he was born just a few months after Nico Hischier. But, at this level of quality, most teams would trip over themselves to have a center group as young as this one.

Your Thoughts

What do you think of this contract? Are you surprised at the team getting a second year at that price? Do you think Glass will continue improving in New Jersey? What is next for Fitzgerald and the team? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.