After the New Jersey Devils’ shocking trade of Jacob Markstrom and Angus Crookshank to the Florida Panthers for Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, and Ben Steeves, the whole picture of this offseason has flipped on its head. No longer are the Devils looking to squeeze a few new players into the roster with limited cap space to pursue new names while re-signing Arseny Gritsyuk, who they also just re-signed on a bridge deal. Instead, the Devils have more or less a full roster with $10.7 million in cap space. Let’s look at that below, with data from PuckPedia:
Meier-Hischier-Mercer
Bratt-Hughes-Brown
Gritsyuk-Glass-Rodrigues
Boqvist-Bjugstad-Noesen
Lombardi*
Hughes-Pesce
Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Dillon-Kovacevic
Chisholm
Allen / Daws*
*Requires new contract
With that roster picture, the New Jersey Devils have $10.7 in cap space. I would expect Lombardi to sign for league minimum, while Daws probably stays under or around $1 million after taking league minimum deals going into this arbitration year. With the re-signing of Arseny Gritsyuk for just $3.25 million per season, the Devils have plenty of cap space to continue adding to the team while tying up their loose ends in terms of expired restricted free agent contracts.
Non-Qualified UFAs
Matias Maccelli, LW: Probably the hottest name among the non-qualified free agents, Matias Maccelli has had some pretty good seasons between Arizona and Toronto, with just one dud year in Utah sitting between. With a career high of 57 points in 2023-24 and 39 points in 2025-26, the somewhat speedy winger can add five-on-five scoring to a middle six line. With plus playmaking skills, a lack of need for power play time, and decent defensive impacts, Maccelli could be the kind of third-line add that bumps Arseny Gritsyuk into a bigger role.
Marc Gatcomb, RW: I would not ask Marc Gatcomb for much offense, but he could be a decent extra for any team that needs an occasional physical presence in their bottom six. In 88 career games with the New York Islanders, Gatcomb has 11 goals and five assists while being credited for 341 hits. He plays passable defense, and also has 25 points in 50 AHL games over the last two seasons.
Jordan Harris, LHD: After struggling with injuries in his season in Boston, Jordan Harris is set to hit free agency. He has played most of his career with the Montreal Canadiens, putting up 10 goals and 30 assists in 172 career NHL games. He is coming off a season-ending lower-body injury that he sustained in October 2025, but his analytical profile had been trending rather positively leading up to that point.
Veterans
Mats Zuccarello: Of all the reasonably attainable players in this year’s free agency, Mats Zuccarello is probably the highest scoring option. However, with his tendency to get banged up during the season and his slipping underlying numbers, there should be some necessary caution here. Adding a guy like Zuccarello to, say, the Hischier line would generate a lot of scoring chances for the Devils’ shooters, though I might worry that his scoring could take a hit by being on the second power play instead of the first unit. Over the last three seasons, he has 46 goals and 171 points in 197 games. He’s super skilled for a guy his age, and I think he is worth considering despite the risk.
Viktor Arvidsson: The problem I think the Devils would have with Viktor Arvidsson is cost. Arvidsson has been through the wringer over the years dealing with injuries, but he is back to being one of the best middle six offensive generators in the league. After scoring 25 goals and 54 points in 69 games with Boston this season, I think Arvidsson might be looking to get paid this offseason. If so, he probably prices himself away from New Jersey. If not, though, he could make a very fun line with Jack Hughes, his former bantering partner. Just…don’t expect the defense to be great.
Claude Giroux: I actually still have trouble believing that Claude Giroux is heading to open market. But, if he is, he would be my number one choice to play on Jack Hughes’s wing in 2026-27. Do I think he can score 3o goals again? No. But he wins over 60% of his draws and is by far the best two-way forward available in free agency. Old? Yes. Durable? Very. Motivated to win a Stanley Cup? Definitely. The future Hall of Famer has one more thing left to do in this league, and he can provide solid leadership in the process.
Anders Lee: Exactly how much term the soon-to-be 36-year old Anders Lee is looking for might be of some concern, but there have not been many more consistent goalscorers since he became established in the league in 2014-15. Lee is not an exceptional playmaker by any means, but his ability to help generate loads of scoring chances around the net could be great on a line with Jack Hughes, who does not exactly need two playmaking wings to pull off his high cycle. If Lee wants three years or fewer, he could be a great option for the Devils, especially with how good of an impact he has at five-on-five.
Eeli Tolvanen: The Settle Kraken might not have been the best team over the last few years, but I am genuinely surprised that the 27-year old Tolvanen is hitting the market. He has a super-hard shot, has played solid defense at times in his career, and can provide some pressure on the forecheck. If he has a coach that knows how to leverage him, he might be a good buy low-ish option, but don’t expect him to slot as high as the four guys listed above.
Mathieu Joseph, RW and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, LHD: I group these two brothers together because I think they can both solve issues on the New Jersey Devils. Older brother Mathieu is a well-established gritty winger who has a plus analytical profile in anywhere from fourth to second-line minutes, which he most recently played when he had 35 points for Ottawa in 2023-24. He can kill penalties decently well, too, and he is a prolific forechecker. Pierre-Olivier, a defenseman, has only played one full season in his NHL career, which came in 2022-23, when he had 21 points in 75 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He languished a bit with Vancouver this season, but his analytical profile was among the best on the team. He might not be as physical as his older brother, but he can hold his own, and he is an even faster skater. If the Devils wanted to get cheaper on the blueline this offseason, Pierre-Olivier Joseph could help them with some proven years of depth experience, while his older brother Mathieu could make the bottom six more of a forechecking force.
AHLers
Ethan Samson, RHD: After being non-qualified by Tampa Bay, Ethan Samson should be looking for a new home. With the Devils shuffling their depth in Utica with the new regime, Samson could find some big minutes as a potential call-up option for the Devils. Per AHL Tracker, he had a 56.8 GF% in Syracuse this season, above the team average of 55.2%. Turning just 23 in August, Samson fits the age of the Utica defensive core of Casey, Vilen, and Morin while looking to be a decent producer with 20 goals and 34 assists in 172 career AHL games, including five goals and nine assists in 30 games for Syracuse after being traded from Philadelphia.
Riley Tufte, LW: Having played a bit in the NHL in each of the last five seasons, the 6’6″ Riley Tufte is coming off a 56-point season for the Providence Bruins. He is 28 years old, so I would not expect him to be too much of an NHL option, but the Utica Comets are in desperate need for scorers even if the AHL does prove to be his peak. As the Devils start to bring more of their prospects up through Utica, players like Tufte would give them a strong structure to play under.
Justin Kirkland, C: Now with two seasons of 20 or more NHL games under his belt, Justin Kirkland is a good option for any team that needs experienced AHL centers who can also handle a handful of NHL games. In his NHL career, he has a 47.6 faceoff percentage and 10 points in 50 games, also with a bit over 50 penalty killing minutes in those games. Per HockeyViz, he grades out as a decent bottom sixer when he does get NHL time.
Christian Kyrou, RHD: The younger brother of Jordan was shockingly non-qualified by the Philadelphia Flyers this week after scoring 34 points in 55 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Kyrou was a second round pick in 2022 and is listed at 5’11” and 182 pounds. If the Devils have any designs of moving Seamus Casey this offseason, Kyrou would be an excellent stand-in for the kind of player Casey is expected to be in the organization.
Final Words and Your Thoughts
The Devils are in a good place going into tomorrow thanks to the moves Sunny Mehta has already made today. With good cap space and limited roster needs, any large overhaul here would mean that more of the current Devils would be on their way out via trades. And it may very well come to that. Personally, I am comfortable going into the 2025-26 season with a trio of Jake Allen, Nico Daws, and Jakub Malek in net, but the front office may not feel that way.
You might be asking why I did not mention any goaltenders in this article: I do not feel like any of them make enough sense for the Devils to go after. There is not a single goaltender in free agency who had a save percentage over .900 in the 2025-26 regular season. I might think that some of them should be better than that, but I would not think it’s worth signing one of those guys just to hold Nico Daws, who has had a .902 save percentage in 30 games since 2023-24 and a .898 save percentage in his 55-game career, back for waivers. With a new goaltending coach, I am really interested to see if one of Daws or Malek can turn into a legitimate option in goal for the Devils.
So, if the Devils want to upgrade in net, they’re going to have to turn to the trade market, in which case more of the players listed here would be viable additions. We will see what direction the Devils go in starting tomorrow. But for the time being, looking for a top six contributor while continuing to buff up the team’s NHL depth appears achievable tomorrow, and I think they can even do it while leaving cap room on the table for the season.
Why does that matter? If the Devils go into the season with, say, $3 million in cap space after the signings they make, they will accrue deadline cap space, which increases with each day that they are not meeting the cap ceiling leading up to the trade deadline. This will make it easier to acquire an actual contributor, whether he be up front, on the blueline, or in goal, for the stretch run leading into the 2027 playoffs. Still, I hope the Devils end up with as good of a roster as they can muster in September, and the work on that continues tomorrow.
But what do you think of the players mentioned here? Who do you think would best fit the team? Who would you want to see them sign? Is there anyone out there who you think is attainable that I didn’t mention? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
