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New Jersey Devils Free Agency Profile: Valtteri Filppula

By Nick Villano

NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: John Moore #2 of the New Jersey Devils gets tangled up with Valtteri Filppula #51 of the Philadelphia Flyers during the game at Prudential Center on February 1, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: John Moore #2 of the New Jersey Devils gets tangled up with Valtteri Filppula #51 of the Philadelphia Flyers during the game at Prudential Center on February 1, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The New Jersey Devils are officially in offseason mode. Over the next few days, we will look at 20 potential free agents they could look at signing. Today, we look at the Philadelphia Flyers Valtteri Filppula.

The New Jersey Devils are in the midst of an interesting offseason. The free agency class is extremely top heavy, as in, it’s John Carlson and John Tavares and everyone else. General manager Ray Shero showed he’s willing to go for the best, and ignore the rest, but this year could be different.

The Devils got their first taste of the postseason under Shero, head coach John Hynes and owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer. That shouldn’t change the plan too much, but that could sway Shero into signing one or two more veterans.

Looking at the free agency class this year, there are some intriguing names who probably deserve a pay cut. One of the most interesting names on that list is the Philadelphia Flyers Valtteri Filppula.

He’s coming off a five year, $25 million contract. He never really lives up to that contract, but he was still a good player. In his first year of his contract, which he signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he scored 25 goals and had 58 points. It was looking like this surprise contract might be worth it.

However, he had an unattainable 19.1 percent shooting percentage. Since then, his best shooting percentage is 15.7 percent this past season. The issue is he really stopped shooting. He only took 70 shots this season, despite playing 81 games and averaging 16:30 of ice time per game.

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Filppula is so much more as a player than scoring. He’s by far the Flyers best penalty killer. Obviously, the Flyers needed more since they ranked 29th in the league in penalty kill, but Filppula did his best to do it by himself. He can win draws when needed. If he did sign with the Devils, I could see him playing more of a wing role, but he’d still get plenty of chances to be in the faceoff circle. He won more than 50 percent of draws for two years in a row and only dropped below that threshold two times in his career.

Filppula will not get a contract even close to what he was making last season. $5 million is way too rich for what you’re getting from a 34 year old coming off an 11 goal season. However, if he can find himself a coach who gets in his head, he could still have one more good run in him.

Hynes could put Filppula in a decent position, playing with great young players like Blake Coleman, Miles Wood, Jesper Bratt and Pavel Zacha. Filppula can be the veteran presence that keeps everyone’s heads up when things get tough.

It is hard to see the fit for Filppula on this Devils team. He is aging, and his skills are clearly deteriorating. At best, I could see the Devils signing Filppula to a Drew Stafford-type contract. Stafford signed very late in the offseason to a one-year deal with little riding on his performance. Maybe signing Filppula to a $1 million dollar deal to see if he can get his shots up and bring some locker room love would be worth it, but no more than that.

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