New Jersey Devils Need To Loosen Up The Purse Strings

Spending wisely makes great business sense. But, the 2016-17 New Jersey Devils are way below the cap, perhaps too far below in today’s NHL.

Let me be the first to say, I like what the New Jersey Devils did this off season. Taylor Hall, Beau Bennett, lots of good moves, I’m totally on board. And I also like a lot of the younger players. But perhaps my optimism is why it pains me so much to look at the salary cap room available to the Red and Black.

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Depending on the site you prefer, New Jersey has something in the area of $13 million of available cap room. That is the second most room in the league, only Carolina has a lower payroll. Given the potential of this year’s club, the financial wherewithal of the new Josh Harris-led ownership group and the quality of their barn (a.k.a. The Prudential Center), I’m not sure that is where the Devils really should be within the salary structure of the National Hockey League.

Compounding matters is the fact that almost $9 million of the Devils payroll, the funds allocated to Ryane Clowe and Marc Savard, two players who are retired and on Long Term Injured Reserve, is dead money. Considering only “live” players, New Jersey is a good $22 million or so below the cap.

As a fan of the club, this does not make me particularly happy. Do I want the Devils simply to spend for the sake of spending? No, I unequivocally do not want that. No one wants Jersey’s Team to be dumb about things.

$13 million of unused cap space is not a good thing for the Devils.

And yes, I do understand the value of holding some money back so that the Devils have the flexibility needed to make “appropriate moves when the opportunity presents itself”. They also need to hold a bit for #26, should he be able to return to the squad. I get all that.

But are there ways some of this $13 million could be used, here and now, without any long-term downside, to improve the club this year? I think there are.

One option is the one everyone is speaking about now, potentially using some of that money to acquire and sign Jacob Trouba. That’s probably close to impossible to do, I don’t know what New Jersey legitimately has to offer Winnipeg for a player of that caliber without negatively impacting their own club this season. But at least the money is there, if something could be worked out. The Devils certainly could use a right shot defender like Trouba.

"The Devils have a promising squad. There is no reason to leave a ton of money on the table for the 2016-17 season."

Another thought might be to sign a stopgap defenseman for a single year, even if the Devils have to overpay a bit, or more than a bit. Let’s face it, if Dennis Seidenberg is good enough to log 23 plus minutes in the World Cup Of Hockey semifinals, I don’t personally see the harm in signing him to a $4-6 million one-year deal to play at the Rock this campaign. He clearly still has something in the tank, and a high value, short-term contract does nothing to hurt the club in the long-term. I don’t think any of us will shed a ton of tears if a Dennis Seidenberg were to step in for a Yohann Auvitu or Jon Merrill this year. He’d be a huge upgrade.

My final preference, which is not my first choice but one which would be better than doing nothing, would be to use some of the $13 million to accept a bad contract in conjunction with a valuable asset (i.e. high draft pick). In other words, a repeat of the Marc Savard trade. That does nothing to help the Devils this year, but would be helpful in the long-term.

Next: Devils Need To Hit The Ground Running

Almost everyone has a chance every year in the NHL. The Devils have a great goalie and some dynamic players and have a chance to make some noise in 2016-17. Worse case scenario is to let the $13 million sit there on the books doing nothing for the club throughout the season. Let’s hope that does not happen and the Devils use this valuable asset to the team’s benefit in some way this year.;

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