When the New Jersey Devils sent an offer sheet to Barrett Hayton, it put them in a really interesting position. Hayton’s ideal position is that of a third-line center. Ironically, with the Utah Mammoth matching that contract, they have a similar situation where there’s not a good place to put him on the roster. With the addition of Vincent Trochek, they either have to play Hayton on the wing, or realize they paid a premium for Trocheck because he’s a center just to play him as a winger.
Meanwhile, the Devils quickly pivoted to Anthony Mantha, spending the money they would have spent on Hayton on a 33-goal scorer leaving the division rival Pittsburgh Penguins.
That leaves the Devils with 14 NHL-quality forwards. That doesn’t even include young players like Shane Lachance and Amadeus Lombardi. The roster is full without adding anyone from the Utica Comets, any additional trades, or even any professional tryouts, which have made the Devils in recent years.
Now, nobody is going to miss a player like Luke Glendening, but the competition is an important part of training camp. If the roster is set before September 1st, then it might be a problem.
With 14 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 3 goalies looking essentially locked in for the roster, that’s too many players. The Devils have to get the roster to 23 players. Some options to go down include Lenni Hameenaho, who is the only option here who is waivers exempt. That means he can’t be claimed by another team if he spends the season in Utica.
There are too many players on the New Jersey Devils roster
Sunny Mehta has spent this offseason talking about how excited he is that Declan Chisolm is on the roster, so he’s not going down. Plus, he’s the only extra defenseman on the Devils, so we assume there’s no world where the Devils play with six defensemen on the roster.
Could the Devils make a shrewd move by sending a veteran like Nick Bjugstad or Stefan Noesen down to the Comets? At some point, the Devils have to make a decision, and that would slightly help them as far as cap space.
Still, the Devils most likely option is a trade is still on the horizon. They just have too many players on the roster. Maybe they send Hameenaho to the AHL for a few weeks and wait for another team to pay a premium after an injury, but that hasn’t always worked out in the past.
Mehta’s best course of action is finding the right trade partner now.
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