The New Jersey Devils have a significant amount of free agents becoming unrestricted next week. One that will have a hard time returning is Patrick Maroon.
The New Jersey Devils have some big decisions to make this week on their free agents, as some big contributors become unrestricted on Sunday. Among them, the biggest name might be Patrick Maroon.
Maroon joined the Devils at the very last second of the trade deadline, when GM Ray Shero called his old buddy Peter Chiarelli and acquired Maroon for a third-round pick. Maroon may not be the “fast and attacking” player that fans were hoping for, but he fit right in with the Devils after the trade.
In fact, he brought one major thing to the table the Devils were struggling with. He could hold onto the puck with the best of the NHL. When even Taylor Hall was having difficulties entering the zone, Maroon could skate through three and four players. It was something the Devils could sorely use for an entire season.
At the end of the season, Shero showed interest in bringing Maroon back, but that never ended with a contract to this point.
Now that we’ve gotten to the legal negotiating point of the offseason, teams are coming out of the woodwork to try and sign Maroon themselves. The one that should concern Devils fans most is the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues have reached out to native St. Louisan and UFA forward Pat Maroon about playing in his hometown. #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) June 26, 2018
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It’s hard to decide what Maroon will cost. According to Matt Cane’s contract predictor, Maroon could be making a massive raise this offseason. It predicts he will make $5.28 million over four seasons.
Woah, that’s a ton of money, but is it worth it in the long run? At this point, I believe Maroon’s agent is holding out until he has some real offers on the table. Will a team be willing to make that kind of a leap on Maroon? I guess the bigger question is, will the Devils be willing to pay that kind of price?
Based on everything we’ve seen, I can’t see Shero giving a player who never made more than $2 million per season a $20+ million contract. Because of this, it seems like Maroon may be moving on to bigger things.