The Devils don’t have a lot of money to spend in free agency, and even if they did, they’d be better off exploring the trade market instead of paying UFA prices in a rising cap environment.
The New Jersey Devils simultaneously accomplished a lot and little in 2024-25.
There were certainly positives, as core players such as Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt had strong individual seasons. Luke Hughes took another big step in his development and will likely be the Devils #1 defenseman sooner rather than later, unless the Devils swing a trade for his older brother. The team got good goaltending, which is a welcome change, and they were overall solid defensively thanks to the additions they made on the blueline last summer. And the team managed to clear the very low bar of getting back to the playoffs, which they did thanks to a strong start to the campaign.
The problem is that as the season went on, the team’s flaws got exposed. Guys like Paul Cotter and Stefan Noesen who got off to hot starts cooled off in the second half, drying up the secondary offense in the process. The team never really had a quality 3C or 4C all season long and the bottom six suffered as a whole. Key players like Dawson Mercer and Simon Nemec took a step back in their respective developments, while Timo Meier was frustratingly inconsistent until he heated up in March. The team struggled to string together winning streaks of longer than a few games, and that was before they lost Jack Hughes to a season ending shoulder injury in early March. Add in a few more key injuries on the blueline once the playoffs actually started, and Carolina made relatively short work of the Devils in five games.
I wouldn’t call this past season a failure though, despite the team’s play post-Christmas break. A failure is what we saw the previous season when everything that could go wrong did go wrong and they missed the playoffs. I highlighted all of those when I wrote this very article one season ago. This past season wasn’t THAT. With that said, I wouldn’t exactly throw a parade over what the Devils did this year either. Just getting to the playoffs should be the bare minimum for this group at this point. They accomplished that, so they get some credit for doing that, but there’s still plenty of work to do going forward.
The 2024-25 season is in the books for the Devils, and has been for some time. With trade season, buyout season, the draft, and free agency all coming quickly over the next few weeks, this is a busy time for GM Tom Fitzgerald as he tries to find the right pieces to help this group take that next step.
The Devils have just over $11.2M to spend in free agency, but with a key RFA in Luke Hughes who needs a new deal and a bottom six that needs to be revamped, that money will dry up fairly quickly and that’s before we start talking about making legitimate upgrades to the forward group. Sure, they can do some things to create more space like get rid of some of the dead weight on the roster. But even if you subtract, you still need to add to replace what you’re losing. Even with the most optimistic, rose-colored glasses projections for guys like Arseni Gritsyuk and what they might do on a league-minimum salary, you need a little more than that.
I do think there is a path though for Tom Fitzgerald to jettison the dead weight, add to the forward group, and build a roster that should fare better in 2025-26. But it is a tight needle to thread.
Tom Fitzgerald Might Have Already Tipped His Hand in Regards to Bargain Bin Hunting
Chris touched on this when he did the write up on the Juho Lammikko signing but it bears repeating. If the Devils are going to add any significant talent towards the top of the roster, they need more minimum salary (or close to it) players at the bottom of the lineup to counterbalance that. Lammikko is certainly part of that discussion.
I don’t know how Lammikko will fare in his return to the NHL after three seasons of playing overseas, but I do find it interesting he’s agreeing to what is essentially a minimum salary two and a half weeks before UFA opens and in a rising cap environment. UFA prices can get out of hand quickly and the Devils aren’t in a position to even go upwards of $2M to sign a fourth line type if they’re serious about making improvements elsewhere in the lineup. I use that $2M number as an example, as that is what some notable fourth liners like Ryan Lomberg and Kevin Stenlund got on July 1 last year. I’m not suggesting the Devils are being cheap, rather, I bring it up to illustrate how cutthroat they probably need to be with the back end of their roster and how they need to get creative in order to find players that fit the current cap structure. Paying the Nate Bastians of the world $1.35M and Tomas Tatar $1.8M are luxuries the Devils can’t afford anymore, hence, outside the box signings like Lammikko. Juho Lammikko might turn out to be not much of a fit at all, but for a one-year deal, its tough to say its a bad deal even if it doesn’t pan out.
I would consider the Devils to have seven viable candidates to be on the 2025 Opening Night roster who all make under $1M AAV. Lammikko, Paul Cotter, Seamus Casey, Simon Nemec, Nico Daws, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Lenni Hameenaho.
I don’t know if the Devils are in a position to ship out any middling contracts and adding more minimum salary players to the mix without hurting the team in the process. Just to use Stefan Noesen as an example, you’re probably not trading him for a draft pick and then getting the same level of production or better from an external UFA making under $1M. But it’s something to keep in mind with where the Devils currently are with their salary cap situation. It’s also yet another reason I wouldn’t expect them to go crazy in UFA, and that’s IF they find takers for Erik Haula or Ondrej Palat via trade this summer.
Next week, I’ll touch on some potential bargain bin options that might make sense for the Devils, but keep in mind that there will be some level of disappointment in the Devils having to shop for those types of options on the clearance rack when the better, higher-end options are the ones who will go early off the boards in free agency.
Regardless, The Answers For the Devils Probably Aren’t Sitting Out There In Free Agency
Its fun to daydream about Nikolaj Ehlers or Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand or Mitch Marner and what they might be able to do in a Devils sweater.
The problem with daydreams is that eventually, you have to wake up and snap back to reality.
The Devils aren’t in a position to make Marner an offer that he might actually accept, and that’s assuming one thinks putting all of your eggs in the Mitch Marner basket is a good idea in the first place. I do know that if I had bottomless resources and my goal was to add the player who gives me the best chance to win a playoff hockey game, I’m going with Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand 10 times out of 10 over Marner. Why? Because I’ve seen them deliver in that spot, time and time again. This line of thinking probably also goes for some of the higher end RFAs available (example, J.J. Peterka), as well as any pricey veterans on other teams who might be available via trade (example, Jason Robertson).
The Devils have already handed out their share of $7M+ contracts the last few years….five of them, in fact. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, and Dougie Hamilton all make salaries north of $7M AAV per season. If they hand out a sixth, its probably going to be for Luke Hughes and rightly so.
While that isn’t a problem in and of itself…..paying your star players what they’re worth isn’t a problem….it does make things tighter elsewhere and it does exacerbate why giving Ondrej Palat $6M AAV wasn’t a great move. And we are probably at the point now where that Palat $6M salary is another ‘luxury’ preventing the Devils from doing other things that they’d like to do. At least, until they find a way to clear that number from their books.
Yes, the Devils might be able to find a couple bargains in UFA to fill out the roster and replace some of what they lost in speed and skill these last few years. But generally speaking, they’ve already spent their money on external guys the last few years between Hamilton, Palat, Brenden Dillon, Brett Pesce, and Stefan Noesen. They’re not really in a position to do it again, and certainly not to the level of the top UFAs that will hit the open market. Its why I keep saying that instead of paying top of market rate for THE Sam Bennett, they’re better off trying to find THE NEXT Sam Bennett via trade. Instead of paying for Ehlers, find the next Carter Verhaeghe before he blows up into one of the top scoring wingers in the league.
Obviously, this is all easier said and done, but in the case of Bennett and Verhaeghe, its a big part of the reason why a team like Florida is back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions and the Devils are not. They were able to find those players to supplement their core and get huge contributions from them at a discounted price.
For 2025: Short Term > Long Term (For the Most Part)
The salary cap ceiling is expected to rise to upwards of $113.5M by 2027-28 and perhaps even more beyond that in future years.
The Devils have already positioned themselves where, with the exception of captain Nico Hischier, most of their deals for their supporting cast are set to expire after the 2026-27 season. Yet, most of their core pieces will still be in the middle of their long-term deals, particularly Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, and Jesper Bratt. One would assume Luke Hughes as well, if the Devils sign him long-term this summer.
I say that to say that with a weak UFA class overall and limited resources anyways, the Devils would be better off exploring short-term deals that align with the rest of the short-term deals that expire after the 2026-27 season. Instead of handing Brock Boeser a silly contract and locking him in until 2030 or beyond, they’re better off taking a stab on someone like Vlad Tarasenko via trade and hoping he is closer to his 2023-24 form than he was last year in Detroit. Instead of living in fantasy land and hoping for Ehlers, see if you can pry Alex Tuch out of Buffalo with a year left on a team-friendly deal. Instead of giving a 37-year-old Brad Marchand multiple years on a new contract at his peak value, take advantage of Dallas’s cap crunch and swing a deal for Mason Marchment.
The core of this Devils team is already in place, so I’m less concerned about giving term to the supporting cast right now, especially when the Devils will need that space in the future to resign Hischier. Going year-to-year with shorter term deals are better now instead of getting locked in for 3, 4, or 5 years for players and limiting your flexibility down the road to retool or adjust later. Sure, you risk “losing the player for nothing” if he walks as a UFA in a year, but when the tradeoff is gaining that cap space to replace said player, those are the types of moves the Devils should be making.
Why The Devils Should Prioritize 3C Over a Top Six Winger
The Devils got a first-hand lesson on how fortunate they are to even have Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, two legitimate Top Six centers, to build around in the first place this past season.
Finding a quality center is hard. And when you need to go pay for one in season, they’re not gonna be cheap. Case in point, go look at what the Avalanche gave up for Brock Nelson as a rental. And no, it doesn’t make it better that Colorado ultimately re-signed Nelson to a multi-year deal because there was no guarantee of that happening when they made the deal to acquire him.
I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I profiled the UFA centers and it bears repeating. It is not a coincidence or an accident that the teams that go deep in the playoffs every year are deep down the middle. Teams that have a legitimate 3C like Florida does with Anton Lundell. Or Dallas with Wyatt Johnston. Or Carolina with Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Tampa didn’t start winning Stanley Cups until they had that depth down the middle. Neither did Vegas. Colorado hasn’t gotten back to the Cup Final in part because they STILL haven’t replaced what Nazem Kadri brought to the table. St. Louis had Brayden Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, and Tyler Bozak down the middle when they won the Cup. There are countless examples of this.
The backbone of championship-caliber rosters begins with your depth down the middle, and until the Devils find a better solution for their 3C and 4C, they’ll be facing an uphill battle when it comes to taking that next step.
The Devils might’ve thought they had a potential solution in Erik Haula at 3C but he had a dreadful season in 2024-25 and may or may not be at a point in his career where he’s more of a wing than a center. At least, that’s what his usage suggested this season. They gave far too many opportunities to the Justin Dowlings of the world out of necessity, and they had too many guys like Curtis Lazar who weren’t up to the part this season. Cody Glass was a solid in-season addition, and he has a good mix of size and speed where he might be a good 4C option. But he’s also another example of how expensive finding a quality center actually is. A future 3rd round pick, a lottery ticket in Max Graham, and a failed former first round pick in Chase Stillman is actually a lot to pay for a player with Glass’s resume and level of production, or lack thereof. Keep in mind, Glass is a former first round bust who is on his 4th NHL team at the age of 26. That’s not to say he can’t play well or carve out a role at the NHL level, but even THAT guy went for a Top 100 pick and two magic bean prospects.
I don’t think the Devils will be able to solve their 3C issue in UFA, but I do think they need to turn over every stone in the trade market to get a more legitimate option at 3C than what they had last season. Building a deeper, better lineup starts there, and you can’t expect your bottom six wingers to do a whole lot of anything if they’re playing with AHL-caliber centers like Dowling and Lazar. It’s for this reason I would prioritize a 3C over a Top Six winger. To be clear, I’m not saying scoring wingers aren’t important. But history has told us time and time again you can find those guys on the trade market at the deadline. There will always be rental options on the wing. And I’m willing to bet that prices won’t be as astronomical as they were this past deadline and more in line with the last few years where deals like this happened on the regular. Especially as teams begin to strip things down to improve their odds for Gavin McKenna in 2026.
The Devils should try again on Ryan O’Reilly. They should see if the Kings want to shed Phillip Danault’s $5.5M salary so they can chase Mitch Marner. Maybe Detroit makes JT Compher or Andrew Copp available with the emergence of Marco Kasper. Maybe the new Islanders GM makes J.G. Pageau available. Or Vegas finally makes William Karlsson or Nic Roy available. Maybe you offer sheet Mavrik Bourque knowing Dallas’s cap situation is tight. I dont know where the Devils turn to for an upgrade at 3C, but they should leave no stone unturned in the process. It’s too important to just assume Cody Glass will be good enough or hope that Erik Haula bounces back or pretend once again that a guy who isn’t a center in Curtis Lazar is indeed a center.
If I’m Fitzgerald and I have limited dollars to work with, that’s where I’m starting my heavy lifting this summer.
How Can The Devils Stretch Every Last Dollar Available To Them?
Let’s put on our fantasy GM hat and get to work, thanks to PuckPedia’s PuckGM mode.
The Devils currently have a hair over $11.2M in available cap space thanks in part to their latest signing, Juho Lammikko, which was announced over the weekend. Lets increase that to $15.54M right off the bat by burying Kurtis MacDermid in Utica and shipping Erik Haula out via a cap dump trade. Since Haula can only block trades to six teams, let’s send him to a place he’s familiar with and probably won’t be one of those six teams…..Haula to Minnesota for a 2026 5th round pick.
We still need a little more operating room though, which means we really need to find a taker for Ondrej Palat. Palat has a 10-team trade list, and he has a $6M AAV, so its a limited market. One potential fit though? How about a trade sending him back to Anaheim, reuniting him with a few familiar faces from his Tampa days….most notably one-time Lightning assistant GM and current Ducks GM Pat Verbeek? Devils trade Palat to the Lightning for a 2027 7th round pick.
That increases our available cap space to $21,544,167 to fill six spots on the NHL roster.
I think you start with the money earmarked for a Luke Hughes extension, and while you could argue that if Luke takes a bridge, it gives you even more room to operate this summer, I’m going to stand by my previous statement when I did the Hughes RFA profile that the short-term benefits of a bridge aren’t worth the tradeoff long-term. If I can get Hughes signed to a max-term deal now, I will, and I think the Brock Faber deal is the comp of which to base a deal off of. Devils sign Luke Hughes to a 8-year, $8.6M AAV deal.
Next, I’m penciling in Arseni Gritsyuk and Lenni Hameenaho in for NHL roster spots, which I am reluctant to do since we haven’t gotten to training camp yet. But the Devils will need a few minimum salary players to fill out the roster, and I doubt there’s any outcome where Gritsyuk doesn’t make the team out of camp. I’m a little less bullish on Hameenaho being ready to jump right into the NHL at his age and contribute, but when considering some of his traits as a prospect (ability to get to the net, hockey sense, compete level), I do think its possible he shows enough in camp and the preseason to earn a spot, even if its as an energy fourth liner type to start out. Even if he’s on the occasional shuttle to and from Utica, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
Those moves would leave $11,069,167 to fill four spots on the NHL roster.
Addressing 3C first, while it’s a bigger AAV than I’d like to commit to, the guy I’d be targeting, if available, is Phillip Danault.
Why Danault? He’s an elite defensive center who is good for 45-50 points every season. He had 43 points this past season despite a career worst shooting year at 6.6%, so I’d gamble on that rebounding closer to his career norms. He can play in all situations, which is ideal for me as I’d like to take a few of those defensive responsibilities off of Nico Hischier’s plate and give the Devils another option for certain situational hockey moments that pop up in game….such as protecting late leads.
Danault, who has 2 years left on his deal at $5.5M AAV, can block trades to ten teams, so there’s a decent chance NJ wouldn’t be on his list. Would they move him though? That is something I’m less certain of. Anze Kopitar is a franchise icon who isn’t going anywhere, and neither is former #2 overall pick Quinton Byfield. They do have a big body center in Samuel Helenius who might be ready for a larger role. But the Kings in general strike me as a team that probably could stand to make a splash in UFA this summer under new GM Ken Holland after they failed to once again get past Edmonton in a playoff series. They’re not short on cap space as they have $21.7M available, but perhaps they look to add a little more by shipping out a veteran like Danault.
The one “yeah, but” for me in regards to Danault is a reasonable compensation package. I don’t think that the deadline trade for Brock Nelson is a direct comparable since that was a rental trade at the deadline, and while part of LA’s motivation for maybe moving Danault would be to dump salary, I don’t view this as a straight cap dump either. The Scott Laughton trade might be a reasonable comp in terms of stylistic players, but he’s also on a cheaper contract and the Flyers retained 50%. I’ll propose the Devils trade the Edmonton 2025 2nd round pick and a conditional 2027 2nd round pick that can become a first if the Devils reach the Stanley Cup Final for Danault. And since that $5.5M is a bit much, finding a third party to eat a portion of the Danault deal would help with the cap moving forward. How about the Devils paying the Sabres the Dallas 2026 4th to retain $1.5M AAV, knocking Danault’s cap hit down to $4M.
That would leave the Devils with $7,069,167 to add a Top Six winger and a 4th line center. Fortunately, the Stars happen to have a big body top six wing theoretically available in Mason Marchment who is typically good for .67 PPG over the last four seasons. Marchment would be well worth the 2026 2nd round pick. All that leaves is the 4C spot, which we can take care of with $1.6M AAV for one year of Cody Glass.
Now, is any of this perfect? No, other than its a cap compliant roster by just under $1M for next season that should be better than the one the Devils trotted out for most of the second half of last season.. Maybe the Ducks don’t want Palat after making the Chris Kreider trade and the Devils have to find another trade partner. If they can’t move Palat, they’re probably not doing much of anything to improve the roster other than tinkering around the edges anyways. Maybe the Devils have to retain to move him elsewhere, or take on someone else’s bad contract, or they have to…..gulp….buy him out. Maybe the Kings want to hold on to Danault and the Devils have to look elsewhere for a 3C. Maybe the Wild don’t want Haula. Maybe the right combination is Reilly and Tarasenko instead of what I just wrote. Or they swing a deal for Ross Colton or Nic Roy someone else in that $4M-ish AAV range.
That doesn’t matter much though at this moment, as the point of this is to illustrate which players need to be on their way out and what type of players the Devils might be able to get to replace them. But it also more or less confirms what I wrote earlier about not being able to be players on the top UFAs that will hit the market. Obviously, Sam Bennett would be an ideal fit at 3C, but the Devils don’t have $8M to spend on him and that $8M number is probably overly conservative considering he just won a Conn Smythe as Florida’s MVP for the postseason. They don’t have $7M to spend a year on an Ehlers or Boeser or Marchand.
This also doesn’t touch the defense at all (which is more or less set for next year anyways) and operates under the assumption that Nico Daws is the backup next season. Your mileage may vary on whether or not Daws will be up to the task and if the Devils will need to add a veteran goaltender at some point to replace Jake Allen, who I think probably walks as a UFA.
There is a path to building a better, more well-rounded team without dipping into UFA. It requires a little creativity. But it can be done.