New Jersey Devils: What’s Taking So Long On Miles Wood’s Contract?

The New Jersey Devils have almost every single deal done going into September. Every deal except one. What is taking the deal for Miles Wood so long?

The New Jersey Devils made very little moves during the offseason. The biggest moves they did make was re-signing their restricted free agents. Well, at least most of them.

Steve Santini was given a surprisingly generous three-year deal. The Devils gave Blake Coleman a sizable raise for his own three-year deal. Stefan Noesen got himself a one-year deal after turning a waiver pickup into a nice few years on the other coast.

So, who doesn’t have a deal? The player who scored more goals than those three players. In fact, Miles Wood scored more goals of any player that isn’t on the first line. Outside of Kyle Palmieri, Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier, Wood’s 19 goals outpaced the rest of the team.

Beyond that, Wood did it with the lowest time on ice of any regular on the team. That’s right, only Jimmy Hayes played more than six games but played less than Wood’s 12:28 minutes per game.

So, what’s taking so long between the Devils and Wood? There are a few complications here. For one, the Devils clearly had a reason to cut Wood’s time on ice. I mean, it didn’t really make any sense to us on the outside. Why would you cut a player’s time when it seemed like they were finally finding their scoring groove? Why would you take the fastest player on either team off the ice for multiple shifts. Seriously, why would you put a guy with Wood’s skill on the fourth line with Brian Boyle?

Something didn’t make sense about that. Who knows what it is, but that could be the same issue holding up a contract extension. It doesn’t help anything to speculate what those issues could be, because there is no evidence to what it could be.

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Moving on, could the Devils and the 22-year-old forward be fighting about money? It’s hard to figure out what kind of contract to give Wood. Should he get a bridge contract to show he can continue to grow as a player? Will the Devils offer him a longer term deal? How much money does Wood want? How much are the Devils willing to give him?

Here’s the thing, we should not be worried about the Wood deal. Just five years ago, the Devils were in a similar position. Adam Henrique was fighting for a new contract after a few really good seasons. Obviously, he was a much better prospect with slightly higher upside and more NHL experience. The point here is Henrique did not re-sign with the Devils until August 26th, so still a few days from where we are here. When the deal finally got done, everyone was happy.

Devils fans just need to be patient. If the team didn’t want Wood to return, they’d find a trade partner by now. The team will find a way to get this done before the team reports to training camp.