New Jersey Devils Free Agents – Armchair GM Results
By Phil DeHaven
Right before the New Jersey Devils ended their disappointing 2014-2015 NHL season by missing the playoffs yet again, we decided to launch a series of polls on the pending New Jersey Devils free agents. The “Armchair GM” poll series covered the 8 pending New Jersey Devils free agents and over 1,500 fans participated in the polls.
The Poll Results
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As you can see in the table above, you the fans voted to keep 4 out of 7 of the New Jersey Devils free agents. I wasn’t surprised to see Scott Gomez, Jordin Tootoo, and Steve Bernier make the re-sign list. However, Mark Fraser was a shocker. I had figured that most fans would vote to not re-sign Fraser due to the amount of young Devils defensemen in the system. The Fraser vote was certainly the closest at 63% in favor of re-signing him, yet all polls that resulted in letting a player go were never even close.
What The Team Would Look Like
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So now that the fans have voted and essentially played the role of GM Lou Lamoriello, the Devils would release three players to free agency. Those three players (
Martin Havlat,
Michael Ryder,
Peter Harrold) would leave the Devils with two holes at right-wing and a defenseman.
While Havlat and Ryder didn’t really play much in the second half of the season, it is still two more forwards that need to be replaced. Could those two spots be filled by Reid Boucher and Stefan Matteau? I’d say possibly, but remember that Lamoriello wants to bring in scoring help so one, if not both of the spots could be filled via free-agent signings.
I’ve already covered the fact that Peter Harrold is really nothing more than a 7th/extra defenseman and your vote reaffirms that. I would think it’s safe to assume he would be replaced by a veteran defenseman free agent signing or by one of the younger defensemen from Albany. So with the four players being re-signed and the three players leaving, lets take a look at what the Devils cap situation would look like.
The Cap Situation
The salary cap situation was determined by your choices along with the $1 million salary retained in the Marek Zidlicky Detroit trade, the $666,667 from Trent Hunter‘s buyout and the new Keith Kinkaid deal. With all those situations combined appropriately, the New Jersey Devils salary cap payroll would be $55,580,000. Then adding in the new deals that I projected for Gomez, Tootoo, Bernier, and Fraser the Devils would have around $11 million in cap space. Again, this is only a projection of what each player will make next season so the $11 million cap space estimate could be a little higher or lower.
The $11 million is also without the re-signings of the Devils four remaining restricted free agents (Adam Larsson, Eric Gelinas, Seth Helgeson, Stefan Matteau). In my opinion, this means there would likely have to be a trade in order to have enough space to re-sign everyone and bring in some scoring. The analysis by many that this year’s free agency class is weak certainly does not help the Devils potential ability to bring in scoring, so a trade appears likely.
It was certainly interesting to see what the majority of our followers would do with the New Jersey Devils free agents. There weren’t too many surprises, but after the lack of success over the past few years I expected that. We will soon take a look at the Devils restricted free agents. However, this time there will be more of a focus on their potential going forward and the new deals you can expect them to receive. It should be interesting to see how Lamoriello handles the New Jersey Devils free agents this off-season.
We would like to thank all our readers who took the time to participate in the Armchair GM polls over the last few weeks. None of the content in regards to the New Jersey Devils free agents in this post would’ve been possible without your participation. As always, keep checking Pucks & Pitchforks for all things Devils related this off-season.
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