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New Jersey Devils Offseason Moves and Grade

Future is bright...

by Jan Levine

August 13, 2023

in Featured, Metropolitan Division, New Jersey Devils, NHL, Opinion

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For my initial foray into columns for Full Press Hockey, I took a quick, high-level look at the off-season moves made by each of the three New York Metropolitan area and division teams. The three squads will be covered in individual blogs alphabetically, with a follow-up column to discuss potential remaining weaknesses and/or moves to be made.

In terms of my background. I have been writing for a site on the Rangers for the last 15 or so years, plus I have covered hockey for RotoWire since 2002. Currently, I live in Long Island, about 25 minutes from UBS Arena and 10 minutes from the old Nassau Coliseum, but grew up in New Jersey and have been a Rangers fan since I was five years old. So without further adieu, here we go:

New Jersey Devils:

In:

– Locked up Jesper Bratt for eight years at a $7.875 mil AAV

– Inked Erik Haula to a three-year, $9.45 million contract

– Extended Timo Meier for eight years at an $8.5 mil AAV
– Traded for Tyler Toffoli, sending a 2023 Third-Round pick and forward Yegor Sharangovich to the Calgary Flames
– Moved MacKenzie Blackwood to San Jose for a sixth-round pick
– Dealt Reilly Walsh for forward Shane Bowers from the Boston Bruins and signed Bowers to a one-year, two-way contract
-Re-signed RW Nate Bastian to a two-year contract with an AAV of $1,350,000 and F Michael McLeod to a one-year contract.for $1.4 million. Acquired D Colin Miller from Dallas in exchange for a fifth-round 2025 draft pick.

– Signed Erik Källgren to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000 at the NHL level and $450,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level for 2023-24.

– Signed F Chris Tierney to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000 at the NHL level and $400,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level.
– Signed F Tomas Nosek to a one-year, one-way contract for $1 million
– Re-signed D Kevin Bahl to a two-year contract worth $2.1 million with a $1.05 million AAV
– Signed D Cal Foote to a one-year, two-way contract worth $800,000 at the NHL level and $350,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level ($450,000 guaranteed

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– Damon Severson (signed an eight-year, $50-million contract with New Jersey and was traded to Columbus for a third-round pick)
– Ryan Graves (signed a six-year, $27 million contract with Pittsburgh)
– Tomas Tatar (free agent), Sharangovich, Blackwood,
– Miles Wood (signed a six-year, $15 million contract with Colorado)

The Devils, coming off a seven-game win over the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs and a five-game defeat to the Hurricanes, are clearly a team ascending. GM Tom Fitzgerald has done yeoman’s work improving the squad, both in the draft and via trade route while the acting and official general manager. While New Jersey may have “snuck” up on teams last season, that will not be the case this year as they lock to be one of the best teams in the division and Eastern Conference.

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Re-signing Bratt and Meier provided scoring on the wing and kept a hometown player as well as one imported at the deadline in New Jersey. If you look at the youth on the roster, extending both players, who are 25 and 26, respectively, maintains the theme that exists on the squad. Jack Hughes, 22, and Nico Hischier, 24, are the top-two centers, while Dawson Mercer, 21, is a top-six winger. Alexander Holtz, the Devils’ first-round pick, seventh overall in 2020, is penciled in on the third line, but he could have a battle to make the roster.

Up front, Toffoli, Haula, and Ondrej Palat, each 32, provide veteran experience. New Jersey deepened their fourth line by signing Nosek, a perfect fourth-line player. He likely will play with Bastian and McLeod, with Tierney and Curtis Lazar as possible options as well. Looking at the forward roster overall, finding a weakness is not easy, but we will touch on that in the next column on the Devils.

In terms of youth, Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, each 19 and two of the best defensive prospects in the world, each have strong chances to break camp with New Jersey. Their presence, coupled with the rest of the youth on the roster, is why the future looks very bright. Dougie Hamilton and Miller, both 30 years old, are the main veteran presence, while John Marino is just 26, and Bahl, 23, are also part of the top-three blueliner pairs. Add in Jonas Siegenthaler, who signed a five-year, $17 million contract with the Devils in July of 2022, plus a really nice cheap add-in of Cal Foote for depth, and the blue line depth is fairly enviable.

Following the trade to San Jose of Blackwood, who looked at one point to be the future between the pipes for New Jersey, the team’s goaltending – as of now – is being entrusted to Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid. Vanecek was brilliant during the regular season, his first in Jersey, but Schmid saved the team’s bacon in their opening series round win over the Blueshirts. If looking where a move could occur, this is most certainly an area of focus, but Fitzgerald may need to get creative and move some money to make space to augment the team between the pipes.

Hard not to be positive about what New Jersey did this offseason. In addition, the Devils free up $2.325 million in dead cap space after the season, allowing the team to make even more moves. In addition, Fitzgerald let players like Graves and Wood sign long-term deals elsewhere and dealt Severson, acquiring a pick for a similar reason, replacing each fairly seamlessly. Overall, give the Devils an A- for the overall offseason to date.

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Comments 4

Joe says:

1 month ago

Correction- Bahl’s contract was 2 years at a total cost of 2.1M, AAV of 1.05M…

Reply
- Jan Levine says:
  
  1 month ago
  
  Thanks for the correction, article has been adjusted
  
  Reply
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