New Jersey Devils: 5 Players To Consider From Minnesota Wild

Alex Galchenyuk

This year’s free agent class is not great. There’s Taylor Hall and Alex Pietrangelo at the top, Evgenii Dadonov and Torey Krug a rung under them (among very few others), then there’s a drop off. There are some players that should intrigue teams, and with a flat cap those teams won’t be willing to overpay for the hope they hold for free agents. That leaves a player like Alex Galchenyuk likely accepting a short-term deal to recapture his value.

Galchenyuk was once the future of the Montreal Canadiens. They were building around him until one day they weren’t anymore. He’s a former third-overall pick in the NHL Draft, showing he was once expected to be a superstar in the league. It didn’t take him long to make an impact. He made the NHL in his draft+1 year, and by the time he was 21 years old he was a 30-goal scorer. This past season, he had 8 goals. What the heck happened here?

Galchenyuk never recovered from being traded by Montreal, putting up less-than-stellar efforts with Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota. He went scoreless in this year’s playoffs and put up sone of the worst advanced stats on the team. Sometimes players just lose the ability to play, and that might be what happened to Galchenyuk.

Galchenyuk still doesn’t turn 27 years old until February of 2021. He’s extremely young and he’s a free agent. How much can an eight-goal scorer actually demand? The Devils could get a top-line scorer on a show-me contract, or he could be someone who rides it out in the owner’s box if it doesn’t work out. The Devils shouldn’t give him a long-term deal. That seems pretty obvious. However, if he’s willing to sign a one-year deal to show what he’s worth, then he should absolutely be an option for Tom Fitzgerald.