New Jersey Devils: Defensemen To Target And Avoid In Free Agency

The New Jersey Devils have a lot of cap space and with the league not finishing its regular season among other things, the cap will not be moving. This is an opportunity for the Devils to go at a free agent or a trade with a cap strapped team. All that said i am not a fan of big game hunting in free agency as it has a long history of going bad fast for teams that do. The position we are weakest at is the defense core and we do need to shore it up though in the short term until a few guys come up and develop into full-time NHL players.
With the biggest names out there being Alex Pietrangelo, Torey Krug, and Tyson Barrie, let’s get to those right away. Pieterangelo isn’t going anywhere. He loves it where he is, they are a great team, and he is the captain who won them their first Stanley Cup last year.

Barrie had an off year and will be leaving Toronto, but not for a bottom feeder like the Devils. He will want to win a Cup and likely get a lot of money. Had things been different, he would be looking for $7+ million a year for six or seven years, but now he might have to settle for less or take a hit on term. Either way, the Devils are not in a position to offer any player over 25 big money.

Krug has been a 40-point defenseman for seven-straight years and would have broken 50 the last four if this season wasn’t shortened. Small in size but he has never played that way and only making $5.2 million on the cap. He has been a steal. The Bruins are in a cap crunch, but they always make it work and people take less to keep a good team together. If he is available for whatever reason though, Tom Fitzgerald should be making the call to at least see what he is looking for even if it’s a long shot.