After a couple weeks of rumors that the Devils would not qualify Cody Glass, they must change course today if he does not budge in negotiations.
The deadline is 5:00 PM Eastern Time today.
After Tom Fitzgerald traded a third round pick, Max Graham, and Chase Stillman to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Cody Glass, the New Jersey Devils seemed to take a big step towards solving their center problem. Without Jack Hughes in the lineup at that point, Glass jumped right into the third-line center role, putting up two goals and five assists in 14 games as he drew difficult matchups and played great defense. In his short regular season stint, he made also made an impression on me in games where he didn’t score, including:
- Against the Edmonton Oilers on 3/13, Glass had an 89.45 xGF% in 4:21 matched up against Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a 72.75 xGF% (with a Devils goal) in 4:36 matched up against Adam Henrique
- In 8:25 against Evgeni Malkin on 3/15, Glass had an 81.70 xGF% while New Jersey held Pittsburgh to one shot in that matchup.
- In 5:51 against Sidney Crosby on 4/11, Glass had a 93.50 xGF% while New Jersey again held Pittsburgh to one shot in his top matchup
Cody Glass (you can read his full RFA profile from Alex here) is a 26 year old, 6’3”, 200-pound right-handed center. With a 47.7% faceoff win percentage in his career and a 49.7% performance over his last three seasons, Glass checks off the basic boxes you want to see in a bottom six center. Having had a career high of 35 points at age 23 with Nashville in the 2022-23 season also indicates that he can contribute on the second unit of a power play, and his potential as a penalty killer has yet not been unlocked, with an outstanding seven team goals allowed in a little under 96 career penalty killing minutes.
The Ottawa Senators just re-signed Claude Giroux to a one-year, $2 million contract. Yes, Giroux took a discount to stay in Ottawa. But with even fewer centers now on the market, the New Jersey Devils need to take a hint and just qualify Glass if he does not sign by the 5:00 PM qualifying offer deadline today. With Glass’s qualifying offer at $2.5 million, re-signing him at that full number for just one year would slightly hurt the team’s financial standing for the 2025-26 season, but it is not worth losing him for nothing. If teams wanted to sign Glass to, say, a three-year, $9 million contract in free agency, they would have to pay a second round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. That’s the compensation for any contract between $2.34 and $4.68 million in annual average value, and it would effectively wash out the trade that Fitzgerald made to acquire Glass in the first place.
On the other hand, Glass could elect for arbitration. But with so little offensive production in his career, I have trouble imagining that he would actually get more than his qualifying offer in a ruling. Glass derives much of his value from strong defensive play, which, at his level of production, marks him as a third or fourth-line player. I just do not think the Devils have anything to worry about from an arbitrator.
Evolving-Hockey
But as indicated by the data from Evolving-Hockey, Glass is one of the most defensively capable bottom six forwards in the league. That is what puts him in the territory of $2 million or more, rather than being closer to a league minimum deal. But if he gets to unrestricted free agency, how high can that number go? There are very limited options for a third-line center in free agency. There’s Pius Suter, Jack Roslovic, Nick Bjugstad, Lars Eller…and not much else. If I expect the lowest paid player there to get $2 million (probably Bjugstad and Eller), I can easily see Glass getting a $3 million offer if the Devils do not qualify him today. He is a younger, right-handed player — and many teams would love the opportunity to sign him without giving anything up.
So, yes, the New Jersey Devils must qualify Glass if the rumors from Friedman are true that teams are lining up to sign him. It would be horrific asset management to let him go for nothing. And with no internal options that can satisfy what he brings to the table, in addition to no free agency options who can do what he does for the same or less money, Tom Fitzgerald might just have to send the qualifying offer in and deal with the possibility of paying Cody a couple hundred thousand more than he’s worth. It would not be the end of the world.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Devils not qualifying Cody Glass so far? What will you think if he goes unqualified by 5PM? Who do you think will sign him if he goes unqualified? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
In a few hours, we will be out with our final free agency preview.