New Jersey Devils: Michael Frolik Would Be An Awesome Addition
The New Jersey Devils would be really smart to add this Calgary Flames forward to their team as they look to add to what they’ve built this summer.
The New Jersey Devils have been linked to another pretty good player this offseason. The Calgary Flames are apparently shopping Michael Frolik. Elliot Friedman shared this news in his “31 Thoughts” article where he said that the New Jersey Devils are a possibility. This is something that would be a really smart move for the Devils as they look to build on what they have done so far this summer.
They are running into cap issues now and the 31-year-old Frolik has one year left on his deal at 4.3 million. That is the perfect player to insert into the Devils top nine while we wait for one of the young guys like Jesper Boqvist amongst others to take that spot for good. Frolik is Stanley Cup champion, winning it in 2013 with the Chicago Blackhawks. On a 2018-19 Calgary Flames team that had tremendous depth with forwards like Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Matthew Tkachuk Frolik had 16 goals and 18 assists for 34 points in 65 games. That is a 42 point pace over 82 games.
He was awesome on a line with Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund and he would almost certainly play with some good linemates in New Jersey. Even if he ended up on the third line, a Blake Coleman and Travis Zajac, Frolik would be a tremendous third line and maybe a guy like Boqvist would, in fact, take a top-six role. This would add some really nice depth up front for the Devils.
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With Calgary being cap crunched, this transaction probably wouldn’t cost the Devils all that much. Frolik isn’t a game breaker at all but the offense he would be able to chip in would be really nice to compliment guys like Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes. He is also really good in his own zone and can win puck battles with regularity. This is a move the Devils should make if the Flames are willing because it would help them in all three zones in a depth player like Frolik.