The New Jersey Devils haven't been the most active team on Tuesday, but they did make a few decent moves to improve their roster. They re-signed Jake Allen to a team-friendly deal and signed Connor Brown to fix the bottom six. They still need help on the bottom-six front, but they are revamping that part of their roster.
Tomas Tatar, Curtis Lazar, Nathan Bastian, and Justin Dowling are all expected to leave in free agency. That’s on top of the trade of Erik Haula and the possible trade of Ondrej Palat. It will be a revamp, and the teams that sign their former players are looking to get more than those players gave to the Devils in 2024-25.
The player most fans hated seeing in the lineup was Justin Dowling. It wasn’t his fault, per se. He did his job the way he was supposed to do it. He was a responsible defensive forward with little offensive upside. He often went entire games without a shot on goal. Yet, he continued to be in the lineup, including in the playoffs, because the Devils were dealing with a depleted roster at center.
Both Haula and Lazar got injured in the first half of the season, and when they returned, neither looked like the player they were the past two seasons. That’s where Dowling had to step up. The Devils had no center depth, and Dowling was the best option from the Utica Comets.
The Devils don’t want to be in that position again this season. That’s the reason they are letting all these players go. And now, they learned they will see one of those players again.
Sounds like Justin Dowling is signing with #NYR
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) July 1, 2025
Justin Dowling signs with the Rangers, much to Devils fans' joy
The Rangers signing Dowling might sound good on paper. The center market is very weak, and the Rangers are getting a bottom-six guy with playoff experience. However, anyone who watched Dowling play knows that it's not going to end well for New York.
And honestly, we're fine with that. The Rangers have a recent history of signing former Devils bottom-six players and it not working out. Whether it's Jimmy Vesey or Kevin Rooney, the Devils moving on from a player only to see him sign in New York is not always a positive experience for those on Broadway.
We haven't seen the terms, and it's possible that Dowling just ends up playing in the AHL again, but this is a deal no Devils fan is sad to see.