After the Minnesota Wild shocked the hockey world by acquiring Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade, all eyes are now on the Devils front office to see what moves they'll make before the trade deadline.
With the final piece of the Hughes trifecta in Saint Paul until at least 2027-28, the pressure is now on general manager Tom Fitzgerald to make a move that will turn this season around. Riddled with injuries and experiencing a rapid descent in the standings, the Devils are desperate for solutions. Heavily lacking forward depth, they wouldn't be in this situation if they utilized free agency correctly.
The Luke Hughes extension overshadowed the lackluster offseason the New Jersey Devils had. Sure, they brought in good contributors such as Connor Brown, but a lot of money went to fringe NHL players who are none other than healthy bodies to send out onto the ice (which they definitely need a lot of right now). With the trade hurricane now swirling around Nashville, Tennessee, and their washed-up centermen, a different Hurricane would have provided valuable center depth in free agency, and at a discount, also.
Jack Roslovic signed with the Edmonton Oilers on October 8 for an incredibly team-friendly one-year, $1.5M deal. Despite dealing with injury right now, the 28-year-old forward has 18 points through 23 games played this season, 10 of those being goals. Not a star by any means, but his production has been well worth the deal Edmonton signed him to. A talented goal scorer, the Devils could have benefited from signing him, especially with their need for depth at his position.
New Jersey could have inked Roslovic to the same deal he signed with the Oilers. Instead, they brought in free agents who now have Devils fans shaking their heads. Players like Juho Lammikko, Luke Glendening, Calen Addison, and Evgenii Dadonov were all "low-risk high-reward" free agent signings for the Devils that have shown absolutely zero reward. Juho Lammikko was signed to a one-year, $800k deal and has a mere 2 assists through 17 games played this season. Evgenii Dadonov signed a one-year, $1M deal and has been on injured reserve, playing in only 5 games so far and logging 7 shots with no points. If the Devils don't sign just these two players, they would have had enough cap flexibility to sign a quality depth goal scorer, like Roslovic, to the now-struggling offense.
Luckily for New Jersey, all of the players named are signed to one-year deals, so once they expire, they have the opportunity to free up cap space and sign a player like Roslovic next offseason if needed, but with the current state of the Devils, they would have benefited from his goal-scoring ability and depth right now.