The New Jersey Devils season may or may not be over, but one thing that’s for sure is the team’s prospects are in offseason mode. These five players may or may not be Devils past this summer.
This offseason is obviously an important one for the New Jersey Devils. We still have no idea when that offseason is going to begin, because technically the team still has 13 games to play. The season has been put on “pause”, and there are serious considerations to find a way to play all the missing games. It’s great news for those who just want to watch hockey, however a decision on that is still a few months away.
Also a few months away is the Devils decision on multiple prospects. There are a couple prospects who’s rights expire in one way or another this “offseason”. Just about every prospect league in the world has officially canceled their season. The lone exception is the AHL, but that decision could come sooner rather than later.
The Devils have done a masterful job really transforming their prospect pool from one of the worst in the National Hockey League, to one that’s at least arguably in the top ten. It helped adding prospects and picks from six different trades to bring in new picks and prospects into the fold.
The big wild card in all this is the guy who made all the decisions to bring these prospects in isn’t here anymore. The Devils fired general manager Ray Shero in the middle of the season, and that puts a lot of the future of these prospects in flux. A few of the prospects have major decisions to make, as the Devils have to make with them. If they aren’t signed, they could be forced to change their trajectory, or they could become free agents sooner. Let’s start with the most obvious decision the Devils have to make.