This season, the New Jersey Devils will be playing around with the salary cap all season. They currently have somewhere between $5 million and $7 million in available space depending on how the roster is adjusted. This doesn’t include money they would get from putting Johnny Kovacevic and/or Stefan Noesen on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
That would be a good place to be in during training camp most years, but this year is different. They still have a Luke Hughes contract to negotiate, and the price they have to spend doesn’t get him signed for eight years. So, we expect them to dip into that LTIR pool.
We did find a way to get the Devils to $8 million in available cap space without using LTIR, but there are issues with that roster. For one, there are no extras, meaning any injury has to come from the AHL. Also, there are AHL limits that probably need to be worked out (if they can be).
One of the easiest moves in the above roster was sending Kurtis MacDermid to the Utica Comets. That would bury his entire $1.1 million cap hit. Replacing that with a guy making the minimum ($775,000) would save the Devils a little more than $300,000 on the cap. It’s not a ton, but it’s important when working with these margins. The Devils could also play without an extra forward, giving them the full $1.1 million in savings.
On Tuesday, the Devils put out a lineup that looks very close to what it’s going to be on opening night.
#NJDevils Group 1 looking close to what you'd imagine as the opening night roster:
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) September 30, 2025
Jack, Bratt, Hischier, Meier, Dadonov, Meier, Palat, Mercer, Brown, Glass, Cotter, Glendening, Gritsyuk, MacDermid, Hamilton, Siegenthaler, Dillon, Pesce, Nemec, Casey, Cholowski, Markstrom, Allen
We count 22 players there, which includes Dennis Cholowski and MacDermid, who would be the assumed extras. It also includes Seamus Casey but not Ethan Edwards, so it sounds like that race is leaning towards the right-handed defenseman for the guy replacing Hughes if it gets that far.
As for MacDermid, this appears to show where the Devils plan to use their roster spots. There is one theoretical spot open (which might be for Hughes, Nico Daws, or for one of the forwards fighting for a spot). This tells us that, at the very least, it's unlikely the Devils bury MacDermid's salary.