The New Jersey Devils sent Stefan Noesen to the AHL on Friday after putting him on waivers on Thursday. The move saves the Devils $1.22 million on the salary cap, but the front office wasn’t done making salary cap-adjacent moves.
See, Sunny Mehta did not come to New Jersey alone. He brought Brandon Birch with him. Birch was considered a salary cap genius. He knows how to manipulate the rules to work in his favor, always. It’s all about looking forward and looking back to see how the cap is going to expand and contract for a team at all times.
This is something Tom Fitzgerald was especially bad at. He would not see past the day when it came to the salary cap. Everything would go on a “we’ll figure it out” basis. Just look at what they did with Evgenii Dadonov last season.
He had a bonus-heavy contract that only counted at $1 million toward the 2025-26 cap. So, if/when he hit those bonuses, they would count against the 2026-27 salary cap.
The bonuses were games-played bonuses, and Dadonov missed most of the season with an injury he suffered in the first game of the season. Yet, when he returned, the Devils played him. He wasn’t effective, but he still played, and the Devils are paying $1.25 million in bonus carryover. Do we think Mehta would love to have an extra $1.25 million in his coffers? Yes, of course he would.
Anton Silaev was called up to the New Jersey Devils roster
In a corresponding move to send Noesen to the AHL, the Devils called top prospect Anton Silaev up. Silaev is playing his first games in North America with the Utica Comets. He did take a penalty in his first game but was also on the ice for a goal.
Silaev is trying to find the right balance between his great skating and his big body. He has a long way to go before he’s NHL-ready, but the Devils are at least preparing for him to play at the next level.
Sending Noesen down & calling up Silaev provided a less optimal LTIR capture (they had more cap space). However, by including Silaev & his Perf Bonuses when they entered LTIR, he takes up $1.075M (his Cap Hit) of Cap Space. Had he not been on the roster when they set LTIR, he…
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 9, 2026
In the most complicated of ways, the Devils are protecting themselves and their future salary cap. Silaev is on his entry-level contract. And while the salary itself is near the minimum, there are bonuses littered throughout the contract. Since the Devils are including Silaev in their long-term injured reserve pool, it’s going to save them money when it comes to paying those bonuses.
See, similar to Dadonov, when a team’s bonus pushes them over the salary cap at the end of the season, it goes on the next year’s salary cap.
So, with this move, the Devils could envelop the bonuses and put them on this year’s cap, meaning there will be no overages.
Who knows if Silaev is going to be NHL-ready this season, but Sunny Mehta is preparing for the fact in case he is. If he plays his way into the lineup, the Devils would be ecstatic.
Add us as a preferred source on Google