The laundry list of short-sighted and overall poor decisions made by New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald just got even longer, and it was totally and utterly preventable.
By appearing in his 20th game of the season, Devils forward Evgenii Dadonov earned a $250k bonus, in addition to a $250k bonus earned earlier in the season for appearing in 10 games. As a result, those $500k in total bonuses will count against the Devils' salary cap for next season.
Of course, as we all know, the Devils will need every penny they can get to try to upgrade the roster and get the team back to Stanley Cup contention as soon as possible.
To make matters worse, Dadonov will earn a further $250k in bonuses if he reaches 30 games played, which is possible if the 37-year-old Russian plays in each of the Devils' last nine games of the season.
The veteran forward drew back into the lineup after standout rookie Arseny Gritsyuk went down with an injury, and if he remains on the shelf for the remainder of the season, the opportunity is there for Dadonov to incur further cap charges.
The Devils are able to call up players from the AHL, given they have only used one of the four allotted post-NHL trade deadline call-ups to this point; defenseman Dennis Cholowski was recalled on deadline day on March 6.
Notably, Dadonov had his full no-trade clause expire on March 1 and could have been traded to 10 teams of his choice, but his zero points coming into the trade deadline and a littany of injuries likely prevented that from being a possibility.
Instead, Dadonov went unclaimed on waivers and remained with the Devils, leading us to this point today.