There was a time a few years ago when Thomas Hickey was an extremely consistent two-way defenseman, capable of filling out any defense corps. That led to him signing a four-year, $10MM contract with the New York Islanders in 2018. Unfortunately, as he dealt with injury and his play declined, Hickey has been mostly limited to minor league duty the last several seasons.
Now a free agent, he has signed a professional tryout contract with the New Jersey Devils and will report to training camp later this month. The 33-year-old played two games for the Islanders last season, splitting the rest of his time between the Bridgeport Islanders and Ontario Reign. He hasn’t played more than five NHL games in a single season since 2018-19.
Given where the New Jersey defense sits right now, there is certainly no guarantee that Hickey will land an NHL contract with the Devils. Dougie Hamilton, John Marino, Damon Severson, Ryan Graves, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brendan Smith are all signed to one-way contracts of at least $1.1MM, while prospects Simon Nemec, Reilly Walsh, and Kevin Bahl will all be pressing for NHL playing time at camp. That doesn’t leave a lot of room on the roster for Hickey, though he could land a two-way deal and be valuable veteran depth in the minor leagues in case of a call-up.
The fourth overall pick from 2007, Hickey has 456 regular season games under his belt, all with the Islanders.