New Jersey Devils: Finding Value In NHL Free Agency

Artemi Panarin

At $11.4 million AAV for 8 years.  That’s a lot of money tied up in a winger knowing that you’re going to have to give a similar extension to Taylor Hall.  If you give this to Panarin, will Hall be willing to sign for less?  Probably not.  Panarin is obviously elite and would provide a huge boost to this Devils team, but tying up $20+ million in two wingers is a little rich for my taste.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t love having Panarin on the Devils, but given his contract projection he was the 13th most valuable UFA.  That’s not to say the Devils shouldn’t reach out but I have a feeling he and Bobrovsky earn themselves fat checks and wind up in South Florida.

Erik Karlsson

Another big name and big contract UFA. Erik Karlsson came in as the 6th most “valuable” UFA suggestion.  His projected contract is $9.9 million a year over 8 years.  That’s a lot to pay for a 29 year old who has had some injury issues recently, but in my opinion would be well worth it.  In terms of adding a star I’d actually prefer Karlsson over Panarin.

Karlsson would free up one of Sami Vatanen or Damon Severson (ideally Vatanen) to be used in a trade to acquire a top six forward and would be the first top pair defenseman the Devils have had since the Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, and Scott Niedermayer era ended.

Now let’s get into the multiplayer packages where things got interesting

Gustav Nyquist at $5.75m for 6 years, Joonas Donskoi at $2.84m for 3 years, and Brad Hunt at $1.18m for 2 years.

This one is from Alex Chauvancy who writes over at The Hockey Writers.

This was far and away the most valuable package put together.  Due to sample size I eliminated Brad Hunt and chose to just combine Nyquist and Donskoi and it was still the most valuable package put together.

We’ll get into this more later, but Donskoi is arguably my favorite target of this free agency period.  This package provides some interesting value for the Devils.  It gives them a legit top six forward in Nyquist and a solid middle six forward in Donskoi for an incredibly low price.

Donskoi was the most valuable forward addition that I found and Nyquist wasn’t far behind coming in at seven, right behind Erik Karlsson.

There were a lot of good suggestion throughout and definitely some bad.  Before we go into the two most valuable scenarios lets go over the do not sign list.