The New Jersey Devils had an interesting offseason. Even before the offseason officially started, the Devils made their biggest move in recent memory. They parted ways with GM and President of Hockey Operations Tom Fitzgerald.
The Devils were coming off yet another disappointing season. They had seemingly gone backward both in the prospect pool and on the ice since the 2022-23 breakout. The change in leadership was necessary.
Then, after a pretty targeted search, the Devils hired Sunny Mehta. The former Florida Panthers executive grew up a Devils fan. He was happy to come “home.” He rebuilt the front office here, and they were ready to take on the offseason and rebuild the roster without tearing anything down.
And they did that. They traded Jacob Markstrom and Simon Nemec to get some assets back in the cupboard. They added Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, Amadeus Lombardi, Anthony Mantha, and Luke Evangelista to the forward group. He committed to Nico Daws in net, with David Rittich acting as a third option.
Overall, this Devils roster is in good shape. They have stars at the top and depth at the bottom. One injury shouldn’t derail this team, and they have pieces to overcome adversity. This team seems to like playing together, which was an issue at times last season. We’ve seen no adversity yet, so we don’t know how that will go.
What matters most is that Mehta helped beef up the Devils’ center position. Even with Nick Bjugstad's injury, they can still move Cody Glass, who scored 20 goals last season, to the fourth line. That always felt like an important step in getting the Devils four competitive lines.
At times last season, the fourth line for the Devils was basically a hope and a prayer that they didn’t allow a goal. Stefan Noesen got hurt and missed most of the season. Paul Cotter fell off. Luke Glendening joined the Devils on a PTO and eventually earned a contract. He had four points in 52 games.
Having Glass on the fourth line shows the Devils’ depth, and he could easily move up to the third line without the Devils losing momentum.
An offseason loss might be why Cody Glass is without a contract
This offseason, Mehta was trying to bolster the center position even further. He tried to sign Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton to an offer sheet. The contract is just for one year, and the Mammoth cannot trade him before he walks directly to free agency. Hayton hasn’t lived up to his original draft position, but he’s been a quality bottom-six contributor.
The Mammoth decided to keep Hayton instead of accepting the Devils’ second-round pick, but many believe Mehta has a plan to revisit the situation next offseason. Centers do get a premium on the open market, and unless the Mammoth re-sign Hayton themselves, he’s going to be a free agent.
And that brings us back to Glass. Is the impending Hayton availability impacting Glass as an extension candidate? The Devils let the old CBA come and go without signing Glass to an extension. He’s an unrestricted free agent next offseason. He’s another player who never lived up to his draft pick, but he turned his career around with the Devils.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Glass gets that extension this season, but because of the Hayton situation, we also wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t get an extension. If Glass repeats his production from last season, he might become undeniable as a core piece.
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