Predicting the Fate of All Pending New Jersey Devils Free Agents
Going into the NHL Free Agency Window, the New Jersey Devils had some housekeeping to do with some of their own restricted free agents. The Devils sent qualifying offers to Yegor Sharangovich, Janne Kuokkanen, Marian Studenic, AJ Greer, and Gilles Senn. The first three names are the least surprising of them as they all showed promise in the shortened season last year. Greer was acquired in the Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac trade and had a small cup of coffee with the big club, so keeping his rights was a 50-50 situation. Side note: they did have Nick Merkley as a restricted free agent, but instead of qualifying him, they dealt him to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Christian Saros.
However, Senn is an interesting one. Senn has signed with HC Davos in Switzerland after playing the last two years of his pro career with the Binghamton Devils with only two NHL appearances. A theory could be that the Devils let him play overseas to get playing time, while retaining his rights and giving him a shot for a bigger role in the organization when get gets back to North America. The Devils currently have four goalies on contract including starter Mackenzie Blackwood, backup Scott Wedgewood, and prospects Nico Daws and Akira Schmid who are expected to be the one-two punch for Utica. There was a fifth goalie who the Devils had, but chose not to qualify him.
Among the players not qualified and can become unrestricted free agents were goalie Evan Cormier, forward Brandon Gignac, and defensemen Colby Sissons and David Quenneville. However, this must be reiterated time and time again, just because a team does not qualify a restricted free agent does not mean they cannot re-sign wit the team. Adam Gaudette was not tendered a qualifying offer by the Chicago Blackhawks and immediately re-signed. Merkley was also not qualified by the Sharks, but it is hard to fathom trading for a 24 year old player and then letting him walk about 48 hours later.
The Devils, luckily, do not have many unrestricted free agents of note. The biggest name is with out a doubt defenseman Ryan Murray. The others include Aaron Dell, Connor Carrick, Matt Tennyson, and a few players who spent a majority of their time in the AHL. While the Devils have plenty of cap space to bring some if not all of them back, it does not mean they should. There are different categories for each player that they fall under. Some that should be brought back, shouldn’t be brought back, and players that should be kept for organizational depth.