The New Jersey Devils have been wheeling and dealing all offseason to put together the best possible roster on short notice. They signed the top free agent on the market in Dougie Hamilton. They traded for necessary defensive help in Ryan Graves. Tom Fitzgerald finally got a backup goalie who can be reliable in Jonathan Bernier (although, he paid handsomely for him). A few weeks after this flurry, the Devils announced they signed Tomas Tatar to help the forwards. It really finalized a roster that was looking to still give a chance to its younger players.
Or, did it solidify the roster? The Devils were tied to star players through trade, and some even mentioned them when it came to offer sheets. They still have $12 million in cap space (luckily, the Travis Zajac one-day contract did not impact this). That’s a lot of money to make moves with. Only five teams have more cap space, and one is the Minnesota Wild who still has to sign Kirill Kaprizov to a massive deal. The other four aren’t expected to make big moves towards being contenders this year.
The trade market has been quiet for weeks as many NHL GMs take some time off after a very long two years. Officially, there were zero trades in August. There was only one trade in September, and it was Montreal reacting to the loss of Jesperi Kotkaniemi to an offer sheet. Teams are preparing for training camp, and some might really like what they have. Others, however, might want to make moves to tweak the roster.
The Devils are absolutely a team that is looking to make tweaks. Some of their top prospects looked really good at the Prospect’s Challenge over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean that Fitzgerald is going to rest on his laurels. Competition is a good thing. He could still make some moves to change this roster before opening night.