There still remains a number of intriguing free agents available on the open market, including Jake Gardiner, Ryan Dzingel and Micheal Ferland. However, despite having $20.77MM in projected cap space remaining on their roster, it’s unlikely the New Jersey Devils will be adding one of them unless their asking price drops significantly, according to The Athletic’s Corey Masisak (subscription required).
That cap number is somewhat deceiving as New Jersey has several restricted free agents they must deal with, including Pavel Zacha, Will Butcher, Mirco Mueller and Connor Carrick, amongst others. No player should walk away with too significant a deal, meaning the Devils would have the cap space to sign one of those free agents, but that still seems unlikely. The team already made their major moves earlier, trading for P.K. Subban and signing winger Wayne Simmonds in free agency. That, however, doesn’t mean they are done making moves.
“I made some calls,” Shero. “This week will be the same thing, and we certainly would want to see what’s out there, if there’s a chance as we go into the summertime and the rest of the summer into training camp.”
- Sam Carchidi of Philly.com comes up with an early projection of the Philadelphia Flyers’ lineup with one interesting hole on the team’s third line. The scribe pencils in Nolan Patrick centering Oskar Lindblom, but lists the other wing position to a mystery man, likely to be battled during training camp. He notes that there are two logical candidates to win the role including veteran Scott Laughton as well as youngsters Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. The 20-year-old Frost, a 2017 first-rounder, wrapped up his junior career last season and combined for 79 goals and 221 points over his last two years for the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL. The 19-year-old Farabee, a 2018 first-rounder, signed with the Flyers after one season with Boston University in which he scored 17 goals and 36 points in 37 games.
- While the discussions of whether the Washington Capitals will be able to retain goaltender Braden Holtby after next season has been discussed, the Washington Capitals have another significant free agent as well next offseason in Niklas Backstrom. The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga suggests that the Capitals are almost certainly going to find a way to bring the veteran center back. Backstrom will be 32 by then, but has been such an integral piece to the first line next to Alexander Ovechkin, that it seems inconceivable the team will allow the veteran to walk away, especially without a young center waiting in the wings, which Washington does not have. Backstrom is still putting up solid numbers as he scored 22 goals and 74 points last season.
So devils probably have 12 million left after potential bonuses and Rafs should try to sign someone to another Simmonds like contract, larger one year deal. If gardiner could be had on a show me contract, maybe throw 1×6 at him or ferland on a 1×5
@bigdaddyt, I think you meant 6×1 for Gardiner and 5×1 for Ferland. $6MM seems a bit too high, and I doubt he would bite on a 1-year deal. I don’t think he realizes what a sketchy defender he really is. Ferland to me might be pushing it for even $3MM, and again, it doesn’t seem likely he would go for a piddly 1-year deal, either. Those are going to occur near training camp, with P.T.O.s and at the rate things are going this off-season, they may be few and far-between. Now, make no mistake, there are still some GMs out there that have a couple of months to do something stupid, so never say never…
Ferland would look great on either Matthews’ or Tavares’ wing. But Dubas doesn’t like power forwards or anyone who throws a body check so doubtful we’ll see him on the Leafs.
I feel like he’d be priced out of there as well