5 Free Agents New Jersey Devils Should Avoid At All Costs

The New Jersey Devils announced on Thursdays that Jesper Bratt is signed for eight years for a total of $63 million. Tom Fitzgerald was able to sign Bratt for less than $8 million a year, and now he’s dealing with the Timo Meier contract negotiation. Reports say he decided to go to arbitration with Meier, which could bring his contract down to $8.5 million.

Let’s say those are the deals for Bratt and Meier. That would leave the Devils with just under $18 million. The Devils have to fill nine roster spots with that $18 million. That’s pretty simple math. They have around $2 million per player to spend. They do have some low-money free agents they could re-sign (Yegor Sharangovich, Kevin Bahl, Nathan Bastian), but there is money to spend on one medium-sized free agent.

Should the Devils just automatically spend to the cap? If they do, they can sign one good free agent, likely at the forward position. However, one bad signing could really hurt their chance at producing a long-term winner. So, with that said, here are some free agents they need to avoid at all costs.

Frederik Andersen

On Thursday morning, we released our choices for the free-agent goalies to target. Obviously, Frederik Andersen was not on the list. If he was, nobody would see him here. Andersen is the man responsible for ending the Devils’ season. The Carolina Hurricanes ended this magical Devils run, and Andersen was in net.

Andersen is looking to get one more payday. Great. We’re happy for him. Do not let it be the Devils who gives it to him. He will turn 34 years old before the start of next season. He probably wants at least a three-year deal. Obviously, he will advocate for staying in Carolina, but Andersen will likely go to the highest bidder. It cannot be the Devils. He’s already shown signs of injury, which will only worsen with age.

Patrick Kane

Patrick Kane is a superstar who many will put high on their free agency list. He’s going to miss the beginning of the next season, but that doesn’t matter. He’s a pure scorer looking to find his next spot where he can win a championship. That’s why he forced his way to the New York Rangers at the trade deadline. Well, that didn’t work out for him.

Now, he’s an unrestricted free agent. He likely wants to return to the Rangers, but at what price is he willing to sign? The Rangers have $11 million in cap space, and they have to fit Alexis Lafreniere, K’Andre Miller, and a backup goalie, along with either Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko or replacements for both.

If the Rangers can’t afford Kane, the Devils should not be one of the teams looking at his services. Let someone else deal with that situation.

Kane is already an offense-only forward. He plays no defense, and that is a major problem in Lindy Ruff’s system. Do we expect that to get better after he has hip surgery? We don’t think so.

Phil Kessel

Did you know Phil Kessel just won the Stanley Cup? He was a healthy scratch for the Vegas Golden Knights in the playoffs. He played all 82 games in the regular season, like he has for the past 13 seasons (well, minus lockouts and COVID-shortened years). He isn’t a totally bad player now. However, the weight of having Phil Kessel on the team is too heavy for a team like the Devils.

Kessel has this famous Ironman streak. He’s played exactly 1,000 games in a row. Obviously, the playoffs don’t count in that streak since he only played four games. It’s pretty clear that Kessel isn’t returning to the Knights, so he will be looking for a home to spend his final days in the NHL. While the Devils could use a scorer in the bottom six, Kessel has too much baggage.

That streak is going to be suffocating for the next team. Imagine being the team that ends the greatest Ironman streak because the team thinks there’s a better lineup fit. That would be national news. It’s not worth the headache.

Beyond that, Kessel isn’t the best fit for this team. His scoring prowess has dropped. Now, he’d need to be a scorer on the third or fourth line. He only had two power-play goals, which is what the Devils would mainly want from him.

Alex Kerfoot

Devils fans love to talk about players who used to play for the Devils. Alex Kerfoot is not one of those players, but it’s complicated. He was drafted by the Devils in 2012, but he played all four seasons at Harvard before refusing to sign with the Devils. Instead, he signed with the Colorado Avalanche, who eventually traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Kerfoot has been fine with the Maple Leafs, but that’s about it. He never matched the 19 goals he scored his rookie season, with 13 this past season being his Maple Leafs high. He does fit a major hole in the Devils lineup. Kerfoot is a bottom-six player with a slight scoring upside and defensive prowess.

However, Kerfoot is like a poor man’s Yegor Sharangovich at this point. He has no shot at 20 goals. He does play on the penalty kill, but it’s hard to say he’s as good as Sharangovich.

Is there really any worth in bringing in a player who is basically a mimic of a player who couldn’t make the lineup when it mattered most? The Devils had a use for Kerfoot when he came out of college six years ago. Now? This isn’t the move to make.