Should New Jersey Devils Trade For Another Team’s Cap Dump?
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils are in the enviable position of having all of the cap space. Should they use that to get picks or prospects out of cap strapped teams?
The New Jersey Devils are going into the NHL offseason with an amazing amount of cap space. CapFriendly just updated their website to have an $83 million 2019-20 cap, and that leaves the Devils with $35 million in cap space.
Yeah, that’s not a typo. The Devils have $35 million in cap space. Now, let’s say the Devils sign most, if not all of their available restricted free agents for market value. Let’s give Will Butcher $3.5 million, Pavel Zacha $1.8 million on a prove-it deal, then filling out the roster with Stefan Noesen, Connor Carrick, and adding Ty Smith and Michael McLeod (can be replaced with Nathan Bastian, Joey Anderson, Brett Seney or Jesper Boqvist, it’s all a similar cap hit) to the team would give them a total of $25 million in cap space.
So, right now, the New Jersey Devils have enough cap space to sign two major free agents. They have enough money to sign both Jeff Skinner and Erik Karlsson with enough space to make mid-season moves. That’s if Ray Shero decides that is the way they need to go.
However, it’s much more likely the Devils use their cap space to get more assets. The Devils have done this in the past, using cap space to gain draft picks. In 2016, the Devils traded two middling prospects who never amounted to anything to the Florida Panthers for Marc Savard and a 2nd-round pick. Savard was too injured to continue his hockey career, so the Devils agreed to take on his contract for the pick.
The Devils could afford to do the same thing this season. Think about the Tampa Bay Lightning. They could really use some extra cap space. After adding two minimum priced defenders, they are sitting with around $6 million. They still need to re-sign Brayden Point and Cedric Paquette. Point might make close to $8 million a season on a long-term deal.
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If the Devils tell the Lightning they’d be willing to take on Ryan Callahan for, say, a 3rd-round pick. The Devils would give them some middling prospect or AHL player in return for Callahan. It would be more ideal if the pick was a 2nd rounder, so they may try to milk more from the deal. Of course, Callahan’s 16 team no-trade list makes this more complicated.
The Vegas Golden Knights are in a much more complicated situation. They have no cap space, even with the cap going up to $83 million. They also have William Karlsson who needs a new contract. The ideal contracts to acquire in this situation is one-year deals, but the most expensive one-year deal on the Knights is Cody Eakin at $3.85 million. That’s not enough to get Karlsson signed.
The Knights would likely have to trade a multi-year contract, which might not come off like a cap dump. Like, say, the Devils traded for Reilly Smith, who’s cap hit of $5 million over the next three seasons is a pretty good deal, would cost the Devils draft picks themselves. However, if they add in Erik Haula who’s coming off a major injury, then that would open up more than $7 million.
There are multiple teams with high-profile restricted free agents that need cap help. The Devils can help by taking on a “bad” contract in exchange for a draft pick. It could make the Devils one of the most active teams this offseason.