The New Jersey Devils need help at forward. It's been pretty obvious with their offensive struggles in January that an addition would be really helpful. There are trade targets that keep getting brought up, including Ryan O'Reilly and J.T. Miller. While both of those players would be nice, they both cost money, salary cap space, term, and would need big prospects and/or draft picks going the other way.
Meanwhile, there's a player who can jump into the Devils lineup tomorrow and make an impact. Brandon Saad had his contract mutually terminated by the St. Louis Blues this week, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Saad is a decent player who is having a bad season. The 32-year-old has been wildly inconsistent his entire career, but he can usually score goals. The Devils desperately need goals. So, it makes sense that the Devils are one of four teams who are reportedly teams to pay attention to in the Saad pursuit.
As mentioned on @SportsOnPrimeCA tonight: Four teams to keep an eye on for pending free agent Brandon Saad, who is eligible to sign as soon as Friday.#LeafsForever, #VegasBorn, #NJDevils and #GoBolts
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 31, 2025
Saad scored 26 last year and is eager to prove he has plenty left in tank.
Those are interesting teams in the race with the Devils. Most people would assume the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, and Tampa Bay Lightning are true Stanley Cup contenders. Some are on the fence about how to decipher the Devils as contenders, so it's interesting to see the Devils in this conversation.
It's rare that a player of Saad's caliber, even having the season he's having, becomes available for free. The last time was when the San Jose Sharks terminated the contract of Evander Kane, who then signed with the Edmonton Oilers. That came after much seedier allegations against Kane. Saad is just not playing the same level of hockey he did before.
Now, the Devils must wonder how much Saad is going. Many are going into this expecting the winger to take a league-minimum contract, but he just walked away from more than $5 million. We see no reason why he wouldn't go to the highest bidder. Kane was able to get a prorated contract of $2 million. With Saad coming with much less baggage and the COVID pause being much further in the rearview mirror, this should be even bigger.
Would the Devils be willing to give Saad a contract that could signal him as their only addition? Would they use all of their remaining cap space, making a midseason trade impossible? If this was truly a minimum contract, the Devils would immediately sign on the dotted line. Even for the Evander Kane price, Saad could probably get Tom Fitzgerald on board. It would be a harder sell if it gets to be more than that.