The New Jersey Devils might be able to weaponize their cap space once again whenever the offseason is. It is important that they use it to their advantage.
The makeup of the 2020-21 National Hockey League season is up in the air right now. COVID-19 has shut the league down for months and forced them to do a 24-team playoff tournament in two hub cities. That is going to start on August 1st and end in the fall. The new CBA has put together some key dates where the league hopes to return to normal, but due to the pandemic there are still a lot of questions regarding next season. The New Jersey Devils might be able to own the offseason again because of these factors.
Fans don’t want to hear that because they “owned the offseason” in 2019 but were awful on the ice once the games started. Your team can look great on paper but all that matters is how you play. With that said, it is okay to look ahead at the team potentially improving their organization during the offseason. They are mostly going to have to wait until the Stanley Cup is awarded in late September or early October but they should be busy.
One of the reasons they are in a good spot to have a good offseason again is because they have so much cap space right now. We don’t know what the exact number will end up being because they might try to extend Nikita Gusev and/or Kyle Palmieri once they are allowed to. As of right now, no team in the NHL spends less on their roster than the Devils. They have an estimated 8.7 million in cap space as of now as well. It could be a year where they try to take advantage.
In the 2019 offseason, they used their cap space weapon to trade for guys like Nikita Gusev and P.K. Subban. They also signed Wayne Simmonds in free-agency. Gusev is really the only one that worked out for the Devils in 2019-20 but they still have hope that Subban can be a good player once again. Either way, they hope to use their cap space strategically in 2020 so that the 2020-21 season could go a little more smoothly.
The Devils have never shied away from using their cap space as a weapon. This time should be no different either. That, along with the 2020 NHL Draft and development of the guys that are already there, could see the Devils take a big step in 2020-21. They likely won’t be a Cup contender or anything like that but showing signs of growth is definitely the main goal.