Good morning, New Jersey Devils fans!
As a bit of a site note, I hope you are all getting ready for the annual Top 25 Under 25 community vote. I will be posting about that soon as we have entered the mid-offseason lull. To Sunny Mehta’s credit, he did not do a press conference a couple of days into July and call the offseason there, as the Devils have continued to make moves here and there throughout the month. Between new coaches, Anthony Mantha, and Utica Comets signings, it has felt like we have had
more to discuss than usual.
While the Devils’ roster is mostly set with a bit of overage among bottom six players, left-handed defensemen, and goaltenders, the Devils can always boost training camp competition further by signing players to Professional Try-Outs (PTOs). Over the last several years, the Devils have not had a ton of successful PTOs. They had Kevin Rooney and Luke Glendening last year and chose the latter (the wrong choice), they had Kevin Labanc in 2024 and let him go (the wrong choice) before he put up decent numbers in a half season for Columbus, they had Max Willman on a PTO in 2023 before signing him (the wrong choice) and subjecting fans to very poor play. I’d say the last time they had a really good PTO was in 2021 when they had Jimmy Vesey, Mark Jankowski, and Tyler Wotherspoon, but their biggest mistake was not signing Jankowski alongside Vesey and Wotherspoon (AHL).
It is possible to find NHL players with a PTO, so here are six options who I think could fit these New Jersey Devils.
Option One: Adam Henrique, C
Adam Henrique is the oldest player on this list at 36 years old, and he is coming off a difficult offensive season where he was used in a shutdown sort of role for the Edmonton Oilers. Public analytic models like HockeyViz and Evolving-Hockey still like Henrique’s underlying impacts, but he had a down finishing season for the first time in his solid career. With the recent signing of former NHL forward Colin White, Sunny Mehta has added plenty of players who can challenge Nick Bjugstad for the fourth-line center role, and I think it would be great to cut our cap hit there in half while probably getting a little better production out of Henrique than they can get out of Bjugstad. Henrique is a true NHLer, so I think this is one they should strongly cosnider.
Option Two: Nathan Bastian, RW
Another familiar face for Devils fans, former fourth liner Nate Bastian had a pretty decent season in the 13th forward role for the Dallas Stars last season. He is a strong bottom six defensive winger, and I would consider him a good option if it looks like Stefan Noesen is still struggling to return from his injuries over the last two seasons. However, Bastian deals with health issues himself as a physical forward, as his shoulder seems to bother him from time to time. But with six goals in 36 games last season, he is still capable of the cheap production the Devils could use on their fourth line, and he is familiar with head coach Sheldon Keefe. If Bastian can finally stay fully healthy, I think there’s a 10 or 15-goal forward in there.
Option Three: Adam Boqvist, RHD
Adam Boqvist might be coming off the worst season of his career with the New York Islanders, but the younger brother of current Devil Jesper Boqvist always had promise as a puck moving right-handed defenseman. Still only 25 and turning 26 in a couple of weeks, Adam could reasonably be signed and passed through to Utica, but a strong showing out of him could introduce interesting questions for the Devils. Since the team currently has far more NHL-caliber left-handed defensemen than righties despite the entire right side of defense having difficult recent injury histories, they might want to have a little more insurance than Seamus Casey if someone goes down. Boqvist has a little more size, 272 games of NHL experience, and was at one point signed by the Florida Panthers, where he had 6 points in 18 games in 2024-25 before being selected off waivers by the Islanders that season. Though Boqvist would be hard pressed to crack the lineup, this might be a situation he would be willing to fight through with a chance to play with his brother.
Option Four: Pierre-Olivier Joseph, LHD
Who says you can have enough defensemen, though? Pierre-Olivier Joseph may be another left-handed player, but he is one of the fastest skaters available among current free agents. Joseph also has a very strong analytical profile, though he has not fully stuck in the NHL since he played 75 games for Pittsburgh in 2022-23. At just 26 years old, Olivier would be a similar fit to Declan Chisholm and Vladislav Kolyachonok, but could still improve the competition level among that group during training camp. Because of how stacked this area of the roster is in terms of current contracts, I would regard him as the least likely option here, yet still a decent one.
Option Five: Pavol Regenda, W
Perhaps a bit of an unknown to most, Pavol Regenda is a rare Group 6 UFA at just 26 years old after scoring nine goals in 24 games for the San Jose Sharks. In his NHL career, the 6’3” and 215 pound forward has 10 goals and three assists in 43 games with 78 hits, and he may also be an option for the Devils’ bottom six this season. He also had three goals and two assists for Team Slovakia at the Olympics this year, and he would be an attractive option for the Devils since he would not count as an AHL veteran if passed through waivers at any point. There is a bit of disagreement on Regenda within analytical models, with HockeyViz regarding him as a true bottom six player while Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM rates him more highly, but I would think that fans would generally like a big guy that might score goals. In that sense, he would provide competition with the team’s bottom six wingers and Riley Tufte, the 6’6” AHL veteran signed by Mehta and Birch earlier in the offseason. Regenda is somewhat younger and has had some level of recent NHL productivity, so I would be interested to see him.
Option Six: Matt Murray, G
I am a bit surprised that Matt Murray is still unsigned at this point of the offseason. Sure, the guy has been hurt a lot, but he did have a .922 save percentage in five NHL appearances for Seattle last season. He did not play any AHL games, though, as injuries kept him at practices only for most of the season. Since I am not the biggest believer in David Rittich, I think it would be a good idea to add some competition for who would be the third goaltender in the mix for the New Jersey Devils. But, with respect to Matt Murray, I would not sign him to stuff him in the AHL, which would make him a better PTO candidate than a guy I would want signed to a deal right now, which makes him similar to Adam Henrique in that.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these PTO options? Do you think any of them could be good choices for the New Jersey Devils? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
