The New Jersey Devils have been incredibly busy over the past few weeks. Many of their moves were headline grabbers. Everyone saw that Simon Nemec was traded to the Calgary Flames and Jacob Markstrom was traded to the Florida Panthers. We also saw Nico Hischier sign his massive five-year extension. Sunny Mehta has been crushing it in his first season as GM.
And of course, the talk around the NHL on Day 2 of free agency is what the Utah Mammoth will do with the offer sheet center Barrett Hayden signed with the Devils. The one-year deal worth $4.775 million doesn’t put the Mammoth in a cap crunch, but they just have too many players, and the CBA rules that the Mammoth wouldn’t be allowed to trade Hayden for one full year.
The Devils also made some small upgrades to the depth, adding Amadeus Lombardi, Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, Declan Chisholm, Riley Tufte, and Vladislav Kolyachonok. The Devils made fewer wholesale changes and more of a cleaning up of the roster.
That clean-up also forced them to say goodbye to a few players. Many saw that Paul Cotter signed with the Vancouver Canucks, but there were more than 10 players who played for the Devils last season who will be playing for another team next season.Â
1. Brian Halonen
New Team: Boston Bruins
Brian Halonen has been a player who has been flirting with an NHL career for a while. Since signing with the Devils out of Michigan Tech in 2022. Since then, he’s played 19 games in the NHL, 217 AHL games, and 1 game in the ECHL. Halonen was a great player for the Utica Comets, but he struggled to translate his offense to the NHL. He was given an actual chance in 2025-26, scoring his first career goal, but his impact was largely muted. Now, he gets to add to the depth of the Boston Bruins. He can still grow into a decent bottom-six player at the next level, but the Devils no longer had the opportunity he was likely looking for.Â
2. Zack MacEwen
New Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
Many Devils' fans likely forgot that Zack MacEwen was here at all. He came over from the trade that sent Kurtis MacDermid to the Ottawa Senators. MacEwen was the perfect type of motor player this lineup needed. He always played with energy, and it was a nice surprise for the fourth line. Unfortunately, he suffered two major injuries that limited his time to just three games last season. While we advocated for the Devils to bring MacEwen back as a depth piece, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave him a two-year deal, which Mehta likely didn't want to do coming off an injury.
3. Dennis Cholowski
New Team: New York Rangers
Dennis Cholowski did not have the best reputation with the New Jersey Devils fanbase. He struggled in Sheldon Keefe’s system after Tom Fitzgerald committed to him twice. He was a good soldier, and he jumped into the lineup during the 2025 playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes, but he was just overwhelmed by what’s required by the Devils. Now, he’s heading to New York, jumping to the Devils’ most hated rival. It’s a move most fans won’t really lose any sleep over, but it’s good for Cholowski that he doesn’t have to move his stuff.Â
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