The New Jersey Devils are going to have their work cut out for them this offseason as they aim to restore their status as Stanley Cup contenders, and the return of new general manager Sunny Mehta may not be the only homecoming we see take place.
Mehta, 48, has notably served as an assistant GM of the Florida Panthers for each of the last three seasons and held the title of director of analytics for those three seasons as well.
Across those three seasons, the Panthers, of course, won the Stanley Cup twice, and did so largely with the help of shrewd additions under Mehta's watch, such as (in no particular order) Vladimir Tarasenko, Evan Rodrigues, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola, Kevin Stenlund, Nate Schmidt, and former Devils Jesper Boqvist, A.J. Greer, and Dmitry Kulikov.
The winning Panthers teams had two distinct identities: a swashbuckling group of talents and castaways patched together by Mehta, Bill Zito, the front office, and a strong pro scouting staff, and their combined difficulty to play against as a team.
Greer, a former Devils forward, was key to the second Cup run for Florida, having signed on in 2024, and the Panthers' tough guy is now an unrestricted free agent at the age of 29 after erupting for a career-high 17 goals, 15 assists, and 32 points in 76 games this past season.
The 6-foot-3 winger has thrown no fewer than 203 hits in each of the last two seasons, while recording 113 or more penalty minutes in three of his last four seasons.
Greer averaged a career-high 9:36 of ice time in his first season with Mehta and the Panthers in 2024-25, and then that shot up to 12:26 in an expanded role this year.
As it tends to be the case with many former Devils players lately, Greer thrived with an opportunity, and that performance should now lead him to a relatively lucrative payday.
A.J. Greer makes sense for a Devils reunion
The fit for the Devils and a reunion with Mehta, though, is clear. Greer has the size and the toughness fans have craved for quite a while now, but it comes in a different form compared to someone like, say, Kurtis MacDermid.
Greer actually profiles a bit similarly to Devils forward Stefan Noesen in terms of skating speed and explosiveness, and both players score the bulk of their goals below the circles.
A healthy Noesen, combined with a slightly taller, more physical Greer, could become a deadly bottom-six duo for the Devils, provided Mehta and Co. can finally supply the team with an adequate fourth-line center. That might be Cody Glass or Nick Bjugstad, or it might be someone else. Things seem to be trending towards the latter.
As for a potential contract, Greer is coming off a two-year, $1.7 million deal that saw him carry a modest $850k cap hit. The 29-year-old is going to demand a hefty raise, to be certain, but one the Devils can and should be willing to afford.
Mehta has seen firsthand the value of the old school sandpaper and grit when combined with a healthy dose of talent and analytics, which is exactly what he would achieve by adding Greer to the mix of ingredients already in New Jersey.
Hockey data mavens AFP Analytics currently project Greer to pull in a two-year pact worth a total of $2.3 million.
A robust market could potentially force the Devils to pay double that for Greer, and they should be prepared to as they decide their next steps for the future.
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