5 players you don't realize aren't with New Jersey Devils anymore

The New Jersey Devils have had a busy offseason. Most of the moves we’ve seen impacted the NHL team. Adding names like Brett Pesce, Tomas Tatar, Brenden Dillon, Jacob Markstrom, and Stefan Noesen helped revamp the roster. Losing players like John Marino, Alexander Holtz, Tomas Nosek, and Brendan Smith took away a few questions still surrounding this roster. Tom Fitzgerald no longer wanted a question. He didn’t want to rely on hope and possibilities. This is a team that needs guarantees.

Over the past year, there have been plenty of examples of this. Did you realize, or possibly have you forgotten, that Tyce Thompson is no longer on the Devils? The once-promising prospect is now in the New York Islanders system. How about Reilly Walsh? He’s trying to make the roster in Los Angeles. Cole Brady no longer has to worry about the goalie logjam in the prospect pool because he was traded to the Dallas Stars.

With so much movement, it’s not a surprise that some players left without much fanfare. Every year, we take a look at players who just kind of… snuck away. Some were traded in moves that didn’t give us a reaction. Others signed free-agent deals after things didn’t really work out in New Jersey. Then, there are the players who were just part of a more surprising transaction.

Tomas Nosek
New Team: Florida Panthers

Speaking of surprising, Tomas Nosek was a surprise signing last season, but a preseason injury basically ruined his whole season. Nosek had just six points in 36 games last season. He was one of the many problems with the Devils last season. There were so many problems that Nosek didn’t track at all. He didn’t make an impact, and his offseason departure wasn’t impactful either. 

Losing Nosek didn’t worry anyone. Again, it’s six points for the whole season. Nosek signed with the Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers. He’s still just 31 years old, so he could have something left in the tank. We’ll let another team find that.

Akira Schmid
New Team: Vegas Golden Knights

If you asked the typical New Jersey Devils fan what happened to Alexander Holtz this offseason, just about everyone knows he was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights for Paul Cotter and a draft pick. Holtz is a former seventh-overall pick who never lived up to the billing. Most would say it wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t utlized correctly, but things still should have gone better.

As a simple throw in, the Devils added Akira Schmid. That seems insane, as Schmid went into last season as the heir apparent and the NHL backup to Vitek Vanecek. He was the great hope for this franchise after he dispatched the New York Rangers in impressive fashion in the playoffs. 

Yet, just one year later, he’s with a different franchise. Not only is he now with the Vegas Golden Knights, but he wasn’t even the headline of the trade. That was Holtz.

Of course, a lot has happened that brought us here. Schmid was completely awful last season. There is word he hated how the contract negotiations went last offseason after the playoff performance. However, the Devils still had another year on his entry-level deal. Why would they take the risk? Schmid showed why they shouldn’t take the risk. He was awful last season, and now he’s on the other side of the country. 

Michael Vukojevic
New Team: Lahti Pelicans

There will always be AHL players who become fan favorites because they are in the organization for a while. The Devils have a few players like that, but it felt like Michael Vukojevic was going to become that player. The former third-round pick seemed satisfied with his role with the Utica Comets. He was a veteran defenseman as new rookies continued to come through the door. 

Vukojevic joined Utica for the first time in 2020-21. He spent that first season in “Utica” (it was the year they played in New Jersey during the COVID pandemic). Some assumed they saw growth the next season, and he saw better positioning in the AHL lineup. 

This was a player we saw growing year after year. However, he started to see himself lose some time in the lineup. He wasn’t even a regular by the end of the season. This is why he went from a player who could be a full-time minor leaguer who might one day get the occasional call up to a player who saw a better opportunity overseas.

Vukojevic was a good player in juniors with the Kitchener Rangers, and his size (6’3, 210 lbs.) made him a coveted pick for the Devils in 2019. It never worked out, and now he’s off to play in Finland. 

Ryan Fitzgerald
New Team: Retirement

We guess this is kind of cheating, but there were a lot of players who are clearly leaving that don’t have a new team yet. We know Keith Kinkaid is leaving despite not being signed anywhere yet. Instead of that, we went with Ryan Fitzgerald. Yes, he is the same kin of Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald.

Ryan Fitzgerald signed a one-year deal with the Comets last offseason after spending the previous three seasons with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 5-foot-9, 172-pound left-shot forward played just 22 games last season and finished the year with two points. It wasn’t the best effort by Fitzgerald, but he was facing an uphill battle.

This is a player who tried to make the most of his name value, but hopefully he can learn some from his father about hockey front offices. Fitzgerald was immediately hired as an amateur scout (ah, nepotism). He will take a career in hockey into another career in hockey. Hopefully, he has his father’s chops. We guess technically he didn't "leave," but he is no longer an acting NHL player.

Did you learn anything about the Devils roster, or did you jus re-remember a trade that made you sad? The Devils roster is basically together. They have some time to add PTOs or other low-level players to fill out training camp.