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 Toronto Maple Leafs James van Riemsdyk.
There are a few really huge pieces on the free agent market this year, and the New Jersey Devils could be in on all of them. There’s two stars in John Carlson and John Tavares, then there’s a tier right below them. That’s where we find James van Riemsdyk.
The Middletown, New Jersey native could return home and play for a team on the rise, something he’s been used to the past two seasons. JVR has been great with the Toronto Maple Leafs after their own one-for-one deal that sent Luke Schenn to Philadelphia.
Outside an injury-riddled 2015-16 season, van Riemsdyk scored at least 27 goals and 54 points in every season with the Leafs. He set a career high in goals with 36 this past season. That’s while their head coach Mike Babcock used him on their third line. That’s obviously Babcock’s way to spread the offense, and the Devils could use him in the same way.
JVR would be a perfect fit on the Devils second line. If the Devils make no other signings or trades, the team could have a top six that looks like this:
Taylor Hall – Nico Hischier – Kyle Palmieri
JVR – Pavel Zacha/Blake Coleman – Marcus Johansson
The Devils could also play Johansson at center, and move Jesper Bratt, Zacha or even Michael McLeod to right wing. Adding van Riemsdyk to this roster would give the Devils a ton of options for the top six without having to make any other moves.
JVR would also do wonders for the Devils second power play unit. The Devils struggled with the man advantage when Hall, Palmieri and Will Butcher were on the bench. Adding JVR to Hischier, Johansson and Sami Vatanen would give opponents fits.
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The big question is what is JVR worth?
Matt Cane with Hockey Graphs just put out an interesting spread sheet on the projections of free agent prices. He’s usually very accurate, and this would be good news for Devils fans looking to add James van Riemsdyk. His algorithm predicts JVR will get a contract that pays him $5.35 million over three seasons. That’s a great contract if the Devils can make that happen.
GM Ray Shero needs to go hard after van Riemsdyk. Even if he costs $6 million over four years, that pays him until he’s 33 years old. He will likely keep his production up through all four of those years, barring injury. Those are the types of free agents Shero should be willing to make moves on. JVR could be the piece that makes the Devils legit contenders, even if they don’t make a huge move on a defenseman.