What the Devils Are Telling Us With Their Free Agency Signings

Tom Fitzgerald spoke today about what the Devils did in free agency. He also left some things unsaid.

Day one of the NHL Free Agency Frenzy is in the books, and as expected, the New Jersey Devils didn’t exactly make a huge splash due to their limited amount of cap space.

That said, the Devils didn’t sit idly by and do nothing either, as Tom Fitzgerald was busy trying to make improvements to the roster.

It started with the Devils surprisingly keeping Jake Allen on a five-year deal for an AAV of $1.8M, solidifying their goaltending tandem for the 2025-26 season. It continued with the addition of a quality bottom six winger in Connor Brown, as the Devils signed him away from the Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers for four years and $3M AAV. Late Tuesday afternoon, they announced several AHL-level signings (Angus Crookshank and Calen Addison) and re-signings (Dennis Cholowski and Marc McLaughlin). They followed that up with another signing for the NHL roster as they announced they had signed Evgenii Dadonov for 1 year and $1M plus bonuses. That work continued today with an AHL level trade of Shane Bowers to the Sharks for Thomas Bordeleau.

I don’t think anyone who has been paying attention can be all that surprised by how the Devils approached free agency though. We’ve known for awhile that their salary cap situation was tight, and the only move the Devils were able to make during the lead up to free agency to create additional cap space was trading Erik Haula to the Nashville Predators. We knew they were going to have to hunt for bargains and they did. Stretching out the term on Allen’s deal got the AAV down to $1.8M, and utilizing performance bonuses for Dadonov (and allowing the Devils to potentially push that cap charge onto next year’s books) allowed the Devils to stretch their limited dollars further. It might be a disappointing approach to those who wanted to see the Devils take a big swing for a Top Six scoring winger or a legitimate third line center, but given the situation that the Devils put themselves in, improving around the edges was always going to be the more sensible approach this summer. Putting in work to improve a bottom six that was abysmal last season might not be glamorous, but in this case, it was necessary.

Fitzgerald spoke to the media earlier today, and I find the approach to free agency interesting as it tells us a few things about what he thinks about what the team is and what they need….both directly and indirectly.

I Guess Dawson Mercer Is The Third Line Center

I still believe what I said a few weeks ago when I talked about the one thing championship rosters have, which is depth at center. It’s the reason why I was so adamant that the Devils come up with a solution at center behind Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. The bottom six doesn’t work unless you have a quality center on at least one of those lines.

The problem is that the rest of the league knows this too and the few quality external options at center dried up quickly. Most of them never so much as reached July 1, and the few who did get traded were part of larger deals, such as Nic Roy heading to Toronto as part of the Mitch Marner sign-and-trade.

Enter Dawson Mercer into the equation.

Mercer stepped in as the Devils second line center once Jack Hughes went down to a season ending injury and did a solid job with 6 goals and 4 assists in 20 games post-Hughes injury. Play generally went in the right direction with him in that position, as he had an xGF% of 51.88% over that span. Mercer has never been great in the faceoff dot, as he was barely over 40% last season, but he showed enough promise albeit in a small sample size where its plausible the Devils took a look around the league, saw how coveted centers would be, and came to the conclusion that maybe they should go with Mercer at center.

At least, I would hope that is the conclusion that the Devils came to. Because it would not appear that they’re going to pivot and sign (or trade) for a natural center. And when Fitzgerald was asked today point blank if the Devils were still looking to add a center, he deflected the question.

The Devils depth chart is getting a little crowded on the wing. Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, Ondrej Palat, Paul Cotter, Evgenii Dadonov, Kurtis MacDermid and Juho Lammikko are left-handed shots on the wing, while Mercer, Connor Brown, and Stefan Noesen are right-handed. But Bratt and Dadonov have typically played RW the last few years. Outside of maybe Lammikko or Cotter in a pinch, there isn’t anyone that I just listed where I would feel comfortable with if they were to move over to center for any prolonged stretch.

Still, having Mercer and the recently qualified Cody Glass as right-handed center options in the bottom six gives the Devils a little more balance with their top two centers being lefties. Mercer should get easier matchups than he saw one year ago playing further down the lineup. I don’t know if it’ll work, and I’d like at least one more winger/center option for when injuries pop up, but it would appear that Mercer is the answer to the “Who will be the 3C question” for now.

The Devils Know They Were Too Slow Last Year

Aside from being middle six wingers, one thing Brown and Dadonov have in common is that both players can skate.

According to NHL Edge, Dadonov was in the 62nd percentile with a top skating speed of 36.24 kph and the 86th percentile of speed bursts over 32 kph with 149. Brown was in the 66th and 85th percentiles of those same categories, respectively. If I expand things out a little further with players expected to compete for bottom six roles, Cody Glass was in the 51st and 63rd percentile last season. Even Juho Lammikko was in the 68th and 80th percentile of those categories in his last full NHL season in 2021-22 with Vancouver.

I think Fitzgerald, who admitted at his presser today that the team is now faster, realized at some point last season that the Devils were too slow and played too slow, something that was all too apparent during the first round playoff series loss to Carolina. I noted back in April that the issue wasn’t so much that the Devils could handle Carolina’s forecheck, but more so that they couldn’t win footraces to loose pucks. They were always a step or two behind which is a big part of the reason why Carolina controlled long stretches of that series. The Devils lacked players who could push the pace, and that was before they lost Jack Hughes for the season and before they lost Luke Hughes in Game 1 of that series. I’m not saying that Brown and Dadonov are all of a sudden going to win a speed skating competition, but at the very least, they should be an upgrade over the players departing this offseason. Brown, Glass, and Dadonov are unequivocally better skaters than Tomas Tatar, Justin Dowling, and Nathan Bastian at this stage of their respective careers.

While the Devils did add grit, sandpaper, and were tougher to play against than in the previous year, they had gotten away from being a team that could kill you in transition and come after the opposition in waves. That was their identity and that was why they had success in 22-23. They got slower in the process trying to build a heavier, playoff-style team. The Devils made an effort to correct that this summer.

I’m not saying you don’t need to be able to withstand a heavier style of hockey, but you’re also not going to out-Florida Florida. It’s a mistake that Toronto and Edmonton made in their series against them once they tried to out-physical the Panthers. Florida laughed in their faces, brushed it off, and it ultimately cost those teams. I’m not suggesting the Devils are ready to beat Florida in a playoff series, but generally speaking, the Devils would be better suited playing their game, playing to their strengths, and playing to their identity rather than trying to emulate someone else’s.

Just a Little More 5v5 Offense Goes a Long Way

Consider these two stats that Daniel Amoia pointed out.

The Devils had one of the most productive power play units in the league last year, but had stretches where they couldn’t score at 5v5. A big part of the issue was that they just got nothing out of most of their bottom six guys. Tomas Tatar had 7 goals in 74 games, Nathan Bastian had 4 goals in 59 games, Justin Dowling had 2 goals in 52 games, Curtis Lazar had 2 goals in 48 games, and Erik Haula had 11 in 69 games (but a stretch where he didn’t score in 3+ months). I get that most of those guys aren’t on the roster to score goals, but it goes to illustrate why they were lacking offensively at 5v5. And its the main reason why none of those players are returning next season.

It’s not as simple as to copy and paste what Dadonov and Brown did elsewhere and just assume they’ll play to the back of their hockey cards now that they’re in New Jersey. But Dadonov has shown soft hands as well as a willingness to go to the dirty areas of the ice. He’s a guy who has been a consistent 20+ goal scorer in this league and hasn’t shown signs of slowing down. I’d be intrigued with him potentially playing on a line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt because Dadonov has shown an ability to create space for himself and get his shot off. And as for Brown, he’s not devoid of playmaking ability. He’ll score the occasional redirection goal. He can score off the backhand. These were smart additions by a front office looking for a little more offense once you get past the core guys on the roster.

The Devils were 26th last season in 5v5 goals with 149 despite being 15th in expected goals for. They were not a team that shot the puck well at all, finishing 27th in shooting percentage on all shot attempts according to MoneyPuck. I’m not saying the Devils did enough to catapult themselves into the Top Five of those categories, but did they do enough to be closer to league average? There should be some level of improvement adding Dadonov, Brown, and Arseni Gritsyuk to the lineup, and perhaps even more if guys like Dougie Hamilton and Timo Meier have better luck shooting the puck. That would go a long way towards getting the Devils back to the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.

There’s Probably Still Something Coming, Which Likely Means a Cap Dump Of Some Sort

Tom Fitzgerald said earlier today that his top priority is getting Luke Hughes’ contract done. But he also suggested that he’s not necessarily done for the summer either.

I find that last part interesting due to the salary cap math.

Depending upon how one wants to finagle the Devils roster on PuckPedia’s Puck GM mode, the Devils have roughly $9.8M remaining in cap space. I got to that number by burying MacDermid, which the Devils seem reluctant to do, as well as a few other minor moves.

That’s probably not enough money for both Luke Hughes and Cody Glass unless the Devils plan on bridging Luke, which isn’t a good idea and is one that I won’t so much as entertain for these exercises. Never mind the fact that Fitzgerald said that Luke has indicated that he wants to be in New Jersey long-term, so they should work towards accomplishing that goal. The Devils need more space, but how can they get it?

The obvious move would be to find a taker for the final two years and $6M AAV of Ondrej Palat’s deal, which all of a sudden doesn’t look so bad when compared to some of the deals we’ve seen handed out in the last few days around the league. Palat was paid out his final signing bonus of $1M yesterday and has $8.9M remaining in actual salary owed over the life of his deal. His NMC also became a 10-team trade list on July 1. San Jose and Anaheim are currently under the floor as of this writing, and there are nine teams with at least $15M in cap space. If the Devils can clear Palat’s salary, they’d have enough space to add a player in that $3-4M AAV range to replace Palat.

The less obvious move might be one that I suggested a few weeks ago….trading Dougie Hamilton.

I don’t think its a coincidence that Elliotte Friedman threw this out there last week.

Hamilton still has value offensively and we just talked about the Devils trying to squeeze more out of this roster offensively at 5v5. But his cap number is what it is. RHD still have value in this league. And there’s a lot of teams out there with a healthy amount of cap space and nothing to spend it on. If the Devils were to flip Hamilton, not only would they easily have the money to take care of Hughes and Glass, but they could potentially turn around and be players on other trades.

We don’t know what we don’t know, so its tough to say whether or not Fitzgerald feels confident he can dump Palat or Hamilton if he needs to. But he probably knows whether or not he has that card in his back pocket, and Fitzgerald didn’t sound like a guy who knows he’s done for the summer. I suspect there is other stuff he would like to do and its contingent on the other factors that I’ve already pointed out.

UPDATE: 7/2/25 3:03pm ET – The Devils announced they have signed Cody Glass to a 2 year deal worth $2.5M AAV.

This deal leaves the Devils with $6.094M in cap space, although that number is closer to around $8M once the team demotes Daws and MacDermid.