The New Jersey Devils have signed another pair of restricted free agents, inking Stefan Noesen, Blake Coleman, Blake Pietila, Kevin Rooney and Ben Thomson. The details are as follows:
- Noesen: One-year, two-way contract worth $660K
- Coleman: One-year, two-way contract worth $660K
- Pietila: Two-year, two-way contract worth $1.335MM (total)
- Rooney: One-year, two-way contract worth $650K
- Thomson: One-year, two-way contract worth $650K
The Devils came into the offseason with a huge group of RFAs, one that has been whittled down in the past few days after the team signed a trio yesterday to go with these five. They now have just Damon Severson left to sign, who came into the summer as perhaps the most important player on the team to get under contract.
Noesen is undoubtedly the most interesting name in this group, after spending the latter half of the season with the Devils this year. Claimed off waivers from the Ducks in January, Noesen is a first-round pick who has had trouble developing much offensive performance since joining the professional ranks. Still, he’s only 24 and fit in admirably in the Devils’ bottom-six where he recorded eight points in 32 games. Though he isn’t what you would call dynamic with the puck, he did generate quite a number of shot chances in his New Jersey stint, and could legitimately find a home in the NHL next season.
The other four all seem like minor league depth at this point in their careers, though each played at least a few games in the NHL last season. Coleman led the bunch with 23, and though he does have some offensive upside seems destined to be a 13th forward at best going forward. That’s not to say they can’t play big roles in the organization, as they’ll help the new Binghamton Devils AHL team try to duplicate the recent success of the last affiliate in Albany. That team has made it to the AHL playoffs in three of the past four years, and should be formidable again this season.