New Jersey Devils: Ranking 10 Best Free Agent Fits

The New Jersey Devils could use free agency to make this team better.

This is a very important offseason for the New Jersey Devils. A lot of that has to do with the NHL Draft. The Devils have three 1st-round picks in this week’s draft, and then another six picks after that. It’s going to be crucial in making the Devils a competitive team for the long term, but it doesn’t do a lot for the team right now. One thing that could make the team better now is through free agency.

The Devils likely aren’t going to make moves for older players, but the way that free agency works there isn’t a lot of players under the age of 27 on the market. With restricted free agency rules, it’s rare a player hits the open market before then. There are only three players in free agency under the age of 25 that played any games in the NHL last season according to Spotrac. They are Sam Lafferty, Melker Karlsson, and Valeri Nichushkin. Nichushkin is the only one the Devils likely would have any interest in. There are only seven total players if you add all the 27 year olds.

The Devils still need some kind of a veteran presence on the team. Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri are the oldest forwards, with P.K. Subban holding down veteran status on the back end. Adding one or two players to this team would help in the long run.

Finding a fit is difficult for the Devils. Not many players make sense in free agency. It’s fun to talk about Taylor Hall, but it’s likely his best years won’t match up with this franchise’s Stanley Cup window. Other players who are already over 30 might be a hard sell to ownership. The Devils will likely be bargain hunters.

So, we ranked the available free agents based on their fit for the Devils. This takes salary, age, production, and chemistry into account. The Devils can only go after the perfect players with how their team is constructed and the timeline they are on.