The New Jersey Devils are looking to find a suitor for P.K. Subban. They haven’t really been shy about that fact. There haven’t been a lot of early trades in the NHL, so movement has been minimal on the players further down trade boards. Everyone is waiting to see if they can make a move for Claude Giroux or Jakob Chychrun, so the Subbans of the world are left waiting for the other shoe to drop. This could lead to the Devils coming out with nothing in the trade market.
Tom Fitzgerald said he already spoke to Subban about his lack of desire to re-sign him to a new deal. It was pretty obvious to most people, but it’s a conversation that the Devils had to have with the veteran defenseman. Subban has been a professional since coming to New Jersey. While he hasn’t lived up to expectations on the ice, he did everything right off the ice, and he deserved to be treated with respect.
However, the latest rumors takes that a little too far. Apparently, Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek spoke openly about the possibility that the Devils could opt to terminate the contract for Subban.
Friedman and Marek talk about the idea of the #NJDevils terminating PK Subban's contract. Moving his cap hit will be difficult at the deadline but if both parties agree to terminate the contract he could become a UFA and sign anywhere for the league minimum.
— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) March 9, 2022
There’s being player friendly, and then there’s taking away any possible leverage by letting something like this leak more than two weeks before the NHL Trade Deadline. Why would the Devils ever let this get out? Maybe Marek and Friedman were just speculating wildly, but that’s not really something they do.
Cutting Subban for nothing and letting him walk is an awful idea. The Devils completely bungled last year’s deadline when they lost Nikita Gusev and Sami Vatanen for nothing. Maybe Gusev had no value, but what was the value in letting him sign wherever he wanted? And Vatanen was clearly the Devils trying to make something work with the salary cap and they got caught by the Dallas Stars.
To cut Subban for nothing and let him sign anywhere would start a trend with the Devils. They become the team that will let you become a free agent in the middle of the year and sign anywhere. It’s not a good trend, even if it leads to players signing here in the offseason. Pushing to leave the team will eventually happen for a player the Devils want to keep.
Some might say that keeping Subban through the end of the season might be worse, but that is undoubtedly untrue. The Devils could get some value out of putting together some wins with this young crew to build some confidence going into next season. Just look at Tuesday night’s win against the Colorado Avalanche. Those wins matter.
Sending Subban out to pasture without a suitable replacement and for no return makes the Devils worse now and honestly worse in the future. It provides another hole in the defense that either has to be plugged with a player playing on his off hand or someone like Reilly Walsh who’s better served spending the rest of the season as the top guy in the AHL. Keeping Subban for the rest of the season is better than losing him for literally nothing.