I might be a true sicko. The sickest of the sickos, if you will.
A few weeks ago, I decided to do a breakdown and grade every single trade Tom Fitzgerald has made as Devils general manager after I stole
the idea from another blogger on the internet.
After well over 9000 words and a fair amount of research, as well as taking the time to collect my thoughts, I was pleased with how it came out. However, there was one line in that article that has gnawed at me since publishing.
“I’ll probably eventually do a similar article in the summer recapping and grading every free agent signing in the Fitzgerald era, but those moves won’t be included here.”
I don’t really consider myself to be obsessive compulsive, but I also have a tendency to not leave well enough alone. Its just my nature. I say I’m going to do something so I need to do it. I’m probably sick enough where I’ll grade every draft pick as well. It’s who I am, so it is what it is.
Consider this a Part 2 to that article, as I will breakdown and grade (mostly) every signing Tom Fitzgerald has made since becoming the Devils general manager on January 12th, 2020. With a few exceptions.
First, I will not be grading signing players to ELC contracts. The reason for that is that I genuinely believe there is no such thing as a bad ELC contract. We’re talking about players on a minimum salary, which is ultimately team-friendly. But there’s too many instances of a player signing an ELC, playing out his ELC in the organization, and then either signing another deal or being traded, and frankly, I think me saying “this deal is fine” for every ELC is boring. So I will not be doing that.
Second, I will not be grading two-way deals for many of the same reasons. I don’t watch AHL Utica or ECHL Adirondack, so it wouldn’t be right or fair for me to analyze those deals either for players who might ultimately be career minor leaguers. James Tracy is better qualified than me to analyze how the prospects are doing anyways, so I’d recommend reading his weekly article for more information on those specific players. It might sound like a bit of a cop out, but you deserve better analysis than me just stating “its fine”.
Lastly, I’m probably going to hand out ‘incomplete’ grades to some of the most recent signings (with a few exceptions). The reason being is that the season is ongoing and players who are off to a poor start have time to change the narrative and play better. Players off to a good start may go cold and struggle for a bit. And knowing this is the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils, there’s a decent chance some of these players are or were hurt.
Once again, our primary source for this exercise will be PuckPedia.
Corey Crawford, 2 years, $3.9M AAV
Date: October 9th, 2020
Tom Fitzgerald had the right idea targeting Corey Crawford to pair with Mackenzie Blackwood. Crawford was a part of two Cup-winning teams in Chicago and he consistently played well through his age 35 season.
Unfortunately, Crawford had second thoughts once training camp began and he decided to call it a career, putting Fitzgerald in a precarious position of having his starting goaltender walk out the door before the season began. The Devils struggled to keep the puck out of the net during the 56-game season and Fitzgerald would be right back in the goaltender business the following summer.
If there was any solace, Crawford’s cap hit was wiped from the books once he retired, but when a player you are counting on retires that close to the season, there’s no way it won’t have a negative impact on the team. I think this was a good contract that probably would’ve aged well had Crawford played it out, but its impossible to say without living in some sort of alternate reality. So I’m just going to grade this one as incomplete.
Grade: Incomplete
Dmitry Kulikov, 1 year, $1.15M AAV
Date: October 22, 2020
I mentioned what Kulikov brought to the table in the previous article, but one year and just over $1M AAV for a solid bottom-pairing defenseman is a deal that I think Fitzgerald should be looking to do every day and twice on Sunday. Good value, no long-term commitment, and the Devils wound up flipping him to a contender at the deadline for a draft pick, which is exactly what the Devils should have been doing with their cap space every year between 2015-2022.
Grade: A
MacKenzie Blackwood, 3 years, $2.8M AAV
Date: December 23, 2020
I think when Fitzgerald signed this deal, he was hoping that he was getting a steal for a player the Devils were hoping would be their franchise goaltender for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, things didn’t really work out that way.
Blackwood was great through his first two seasons, posting a .916 save percentage over 70 appearances. But after signing this deal and between COVID, injuries, and inconsistencies, his numbers dipped in the first year of that deal and continued to slip in the following years. Blackwood was ultimately traded to the Sharks for a late round draft pick, and has since moved on to Colorado.
I think this is one of those deals where Fitzgerald had the right idea locking up the young franchise goaltender for a few years with the intention of doing a long-term deal once he proved it. The problem is that Mac couldn’t stay on the ice long enough to prove it.
Grade: C
Sami Vatanen, 1 year, $2M AAV
Date: January 7th, 2021
When I talked about Vatanen previously, I had mentioned how he was traded at the deadline for Janne Kuokkanen, Fredrik Claesson, and the draft pick the Devils used to take Nico Daws.
What I had forgotten in regards to Vatanen was that the Devils brought him back for the 56-game season. And it did not go well.
Vatanen skated in 30 games but struggled to find any offensive touch, registering 2 goals and 4 assists in 30 games. To make matters worse, the Devils were unable to flip him at the trade deadline for anything. I don’t know if this was a situation where Fitzgerald didn’t want to take what was a ‘nothing return’ for a player who had spent most of the last half decade in New Jersey, if the Devils refused to retain salary on his $2M salary, or just how non-existent his market was, but the Devils waived Vatanen on trade deadline day. Dallas wound up claiming him, where he played the final 9 games of his NHL career before continuing his career overseas.
I don’t have an issue with the Devils bringing back a player they were familiar with, but its safe to say Vatanen’s second tour in Jersey wasn’t nearly as good as the first.
Grade: C–
Jesper Bratt, 2 years, $2.75M AAV
Date: January 10th, 2021
Coming off of his ELC and with 100 points over his first 185 NHL contests, Jesper Bratt was due for a raise. The question would be how much, and what would the deal look like.
The answer wound up being a two-year bridge deal that turned out to be an incredible value in the second season of said deal.
Bratt’s scoring rates per game suggested that he was a player who could potentially break out, and while his point total was down in 2021-22, his scoring rate was actually up since he only appeared in 46 games. It wouldn’t be until the following season where his point totals would explode though, and he’s basically been right around a PPG player over the last four full seasons (317 points in 321 games).
Bratt would go through a few more contract negotiations in this timeframe, but its tough to argue that getting a 73 point player for $2.75M in 2021-22 isn’t incredible value. It’s a shame the rest of the team didn’t do their part that season and ultimately wasted that performance.
Grade: A+
Nathan Bastian, 2 years, $825,000 AAV
Date: June 15th, 2021
Bastian’s first full NHL season was the 56-game campaign in 2020-21 and he showed some promise as a physical fourth line winger with 3 goals and 7 assists in 41 games. The Devils rewarded him with a two year deal.
One month later, he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in their expansion draft.
Leaving Bastian exposed made sense. The way the rules were set up at the time, you could only protect upwards of 7 forwards, and the Devils prioritized players playing higher in the lineup. Someone eligible at forward had to be exposed, and Bastian fit the criteria. It wound up being ‘no harm, no foul’ anyways as Bastian didn’t really fit in with Seattle. The Kraken waived him early in their inaugural season, the Devils claimed him, and he played the next three and a half seasons in New Jersey before departing as a free agent this past summer.
It’s tough to complain about a multi-year deal though for a fourth line grinder that is under $1M AAV. This is what those players typically cost, and with 17 goals and 14 assists in 103 games in Jersey over the life of that deal, the Devils got their money’s worth.
Grade: A
Jonas Siegenthaler, 2 years, $1.125M AAV
Date: July 9th, 2021
Having just come over at the trade deadline last season and getting a cup of coffee with the Devils, Siegenthaler needed a new deal.
Siegenthaler stepped in as a top pairing defenseman almost immediately, averaging over 20 minutes a night. He’s been a fixture on the penalty kill and it wouldn’t be long before Fitzgerald would move to extend his contract yet again.
Grade: A+
Michael McLeod, 2 years, $975,000 AAV
Date: July 15th, 2021
Having played out his ELC, McLeod established himself as an NHL regular in the COVID-shortened season. With just 20 points in 85 career games to this point, he didn’t have the counting stats to justify a long-term commitment, but he showed enough promise that he was worth investing in. The Devils gave him 2 years at $975k, and McLeod rewarded that faith in him by continuing to improve in multiple assets of his game. He became a better two-way center, he was trusted to play on the penalty kill, he developed into one of the top faceoff specialists in the league, and he mixed in a little physicality to boot.
With 46 points over the life of that contract, its tough to argue the Devils once again didn’t get appropriate value for McLeod.
Grade: A
Jonathan Bernier, 2 years, $4.125M AAV
Date: July 28th, 2021
After what happened with Corey Crawford happened the previous season, the Devils needed to go out and get another veteran goaltender to pair with Mackenzie Blackwood.
This is another one of those signings where the process was sound but the results didn’t pan out.
Bernier had a long track record of consistent play in net. More often than not, he would give his team a chance to win. He had also accepted transitioning into more of a platoon role, so he seemed perfectly suited to be paired with a younger up-and-coming goaltender in Blackwood.
Unfortunately, his body quit on him as a lingering hip injury resurfaced during training camp of that season. Bernier tried to battle through it and wound up appearing in 10 games early in the 2021-22 campaign. He eventually had to have surgery on his hip, ending that season. He didn’t play the following season either, and retired after the 2022-23 campaign.
Ultimately, this is a results business, and the reality is that Fitzgerald was now 0-2 with his big free agent goaltender acquisitions. The good news is that the other big signing Fitzgerald made that same day went a lot better than this one.
Grade: C–
Dougie Hamilton, 7 years, $9M AAV
Date: July 28th, 2021
The Devils young core was taking shape. They had plenty of cap space with which to go out and make a big move. And with a top pairing RHD with a big shot sitting out there on the market, they pounced, signing Dougie Hamilton to a 7-year deal worth $9M AAV.
Hamilton has mostly been as advertised, bringing offense to the Devils blueline. He even added a new wrinkle to his game earlier this season playing some of the best defensive hockey he’s played since coming to New Jersey, which is probably a credit to the work Brad Shaw has done with him.
Injuries have slowed Hamilton down throughout his time in New Jersey. A puck to the face and subsequent broken jaw. A torn pec. A few lower body injuries. He’s a player who didn’t have much of an injury history prior to New Jersey, but has only appeared in roughly 70% of his games since signing with the Devils. To make matters worse, his offensive production has dried up in Year 5 of said deal, and for a guy who is primarily being paid for what he does on offense, its not good enough.
With two more years remaining on his deal after this one, it remains to be seen whether or not Dougie finishes this deal in New Jersey or if the Devils consider trading him and freeing up that $9M AAV to be used elsewhere. I didn’t think Dougie had a bad contract but his lack of production has given me pause. Sitting here in Year 5 of that deal, it was reasonable to expect a dropoff at some point. If this is who Dougie is going to be now, it’s a major problem because it’ll be much more difficult to find a trade partner and free up that cap space. The Devils had mostly gotten fair value from Hamilton prior to this year, but I’m concerned about his decline as a player.
Grade: B-
Yegor Sharangovich, 2 years, $2M AAV
Date: August 5th, 2021
Sharangovich debuted for the Devils during the shortened season and more than held his own, with 16 goals and 14 assists over 54 games. This was good for a 10th place finish in the Calder Trophy voting, not to mention a new contract for the pending RFA.
Sharangovich took another step forward the following season with 46 points in 76 games. His shooting cooled off and he only registered 30 points in 75 games the following season before being traded to the Calgary Flames for Tyler Toffoli. But over the span of two years, the Devils got a player who was roughly a .5 PPG player for a $2M AAV. It’s a solid deal.
Grade: B+
Tomas Tatar, 2 years, $4.5M AAV
Date: August 5th, 2021
The Devils had more cap space to play with and decided to take a shot on a well-traveled veteran with a reputation for putting the puck in the back of the net. With six 20+ goal seasons on his resume, the Devils brought in Tomas Tatar on a two-year deal.
Year 1 of that deal wasn’t very good, as he managed 15 goals and 15 assists over 76 games. He was much better in the second season, as he saw ice time with Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer, tallying 20 goals and 28 assists over the 82 game campaign. Tatar departed in free agency before returning a year later.
This deal looked like a potential disaster in Year 1, but the second year was strong enough to salvage it and make it acceptable.
Grade: B-
Janne Kuokkanen, 2 years, $1.825M AAV
Date: August 9th, 2021
Kuokkanen needed a new deal after the shortened season, and while the numbers on the surface look fair considering his body of work to that point, his struggles in the 2021-22 campaign effectively marked the end of the road for him as an NHL-caliber player.
With Kuokkanen being under the age of 25, Fitzgerald was able to take advantage of the buyout rules one year into the deal and save more money than he typically would against the cap via a buyout. But when we’re talking about buying out a 23 year old player a year into a deal with where the Devils were as an organization at the time, its a strong indicator of how things weren’t working out with the player that they were that eager to move on.
Grade: D
Jimmy Vesey, 1 year, $800,000 AAV
Date: October 10th, 2021
The Devils brought Jimmy Vesey to training camp on a PTO and he showed enough to earn a 1-year contract.
Vesey was a fixture on the Devils fourth line that season with 8 goals and 7 assists in 68 games. He signed with that team across the river after the season, playing the next 2.5 seasons there before being traded to Colorado. He’s now with Geneve Servette of the Swiss-A league.
Grade: C
Jack Hughes, 8 years, $8M AAV
Date: November 30th, 2021
After two subpar seasons to begin the former #1 overall pick’s NHL career, Fitzgerald stunned the hockey world by signing Jack Hughes to a max-term deal for $8M AAV.
A lot of the critiques at the time was about how Jack hadn’t “earned it” and how are you going to sign a player for $8M AAV when he hadn’t “shown it” yet.
Safe to say that Tom Fitzgerald knew what he was doing here.
Jack Hughes’s point production exploded the Year 3 of his career, as he’s been a 1.19 PPG player in his last 268 games. The deal has aged gracefully as one of, if not the, best deals in hockey.
The one ’yeah, but’ with Hughes has been health, as that’s really been the only thing that has slowed Hughes down. And it doesn’t help matters that after a few years of suffering notable hockey injuries, he got injured this year in maybe the dumbest setting imaginable…..a freak accident during a team dinner at an upscale steakhouse in Chicago.
Grade: A
Brendan Smith, 2 years, $1.1M AAV
Date: July 13th, 2022
The Devils needed to add a depth defenseman to fill out their roster, and in free agency 2022, they went with veteran Brendan Smith.
Smith was what he was as a bottom-pairing defenseman. He brought a little physicality and is your classic “doesn’t make mistakes, but also doesn’t do much to contribute offensively” defenseman. He once was famously cited by Lindy Ruff for appearing in the playoff lineup as a “former Ranger”, which is certainly a choice when you had higher upside players like Luke Hughes available.
Overall, he probably wasn’t as bad as people remember, but he wasn’t all that great either. The Devils were also unable to flip him for anything at the deadline as an expiring contract despite his veteran presence, reputation as a player, and low AAV.
Smith has continued to bounce around the league with stops in Dallas and Columbus since departing New Jersey.
Grade: C
Ondrej Palat, 5 years, $6M AAV
Date: July 13th, 2022
Of course, the Brendan Smith deal wasn’t the only move Fitzgerald made on that day.
After coming up short in his pursuit of Johnny Gaudreau as a UFA, the Devils announced that they had signed the veteran winger Ondrej Palat to a 5-year deal worth $6M a year.
On the surface, there were aspects of the Palat deal that made sense. Palat brought “rings to the room”. He brought a reputation for being a smart two-way player who is capable of playing with star players from his time in Tampa and helping bring the best out of them. He does all of the little things that don’t show up in a box score that helps a team win.
That’s all well and good, but when you’re being paid $6M AAV, you do have to score as well, and for the most part, Palat’s production declined once he got to New Jersey.
Palat was a consistent 40-50 point per season player from his time in Tampa, but his high water mark as a Devil is 31 points in 2023-24. He scored 15 goals last season when he spent a lot of time playing with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, but also, how many goals were left on the ice because Palat couldn’t finish those opportunities? And don’t get me started on the lack of production this year.
The Devils needed to find a way out of this deal over the summer. They didn’t, and they’re paying for it now. I would imagine with a year to go, this is heading towards a buyout at the end of this season. Maybe Fitzgerald can find a trade partner, but I wouldn’t be lining up to take on a soon-to-be 35-year old Palat for $6M AAV if I were one of the other 31 GMs unless it was worth my while.
Grade: D-
Vitek Vanecek, 3 years, $3.4M AAV
Date: July 19th, 2022
Having acquired Vanecek at the draft, the Devils needed to give the RFA a new contract. They did just that, giving him three years and lower-end starting goaltender money.
The first year of this deal was just fine, with Vanecek being a big part of the reason why the Devils played as well as they did and made it back to the playoffs. But his play dropped off significantly in Year 2 to the point where the Devils traded him in a salary cap dump deal slash change of scenery trade at the trade deadline in Year 2.
The good news is that at least Fitzgerald was able to fix the mistake of giving Vanecek the third year where it was someone else’s problem. The bad news is that its another goaltending move on a growing list of them that hadn’t panned out.
Grade: C-
Jonas Siegenthaler, 5 years, $3.4M AAV
Date: July 26th, 2022
A year after inking Siegenthaler to a 2-year deal, the Devils liked what they saw enough from him to lock him up to a 5-year team-friendly deal with a $3.4M AAV.
There have been stretches where Siegenthaler has struggled, including this season. Some of it due to injury, and some of it likely due to the ebbs and flows that come with him playing a shutdown defenseman role. But I think Fitzgerald has gotten good value out of this deal up to this point. Maybe if his struggles continue, the Devils look for a way out of it after this season with two years to go on this deal, but they’d probably wind up spending more money trying to replace what he does as a player.
Grade: A–
Tyce Thompson, 2 years, $762,500 AAV
Date: August 2nd, 2022
It’s tough to criticize Fitzgerald for a two-year deal at a low AAV for Thompson. I think Fitzgerald was hoping that Thompson would push for an NHL roster spot, but that never happened.
Grade: B
Jesper Bratt, 1 year, $5.45M AAV
Date: August 3th, 2022
Having broken out for 73 points in a contract season, it appeared the time is/was now for the Devils to try to lock up Bratt to a long-term deal.
Unfortunately, that deal would have to wait another year.
The Devils and Bratt went to arbitration. Or at least, they were about to, as the two sides agreed to this one-year deal at the literal last second to avoid the messy process of arbitration.
We don’t know what we don’t know, so who knows how amenable Bratt’s camp was to a long-term deal at the price point Fitzgerald wanted at the time. Obviously, the preference would’ve been to do the deal then and there and maybe save a little money, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Devils would get good value on yet another bridge deal in the meantime.
Grade: B+
Miles Wood, 1 year, $3.2M AAV
Date: August 4th, 2022
Having missed almost the entire previous season, I think it was a fair question whether or not the Devils would even tender Wood a contract. They ultimately did though, giving him a 1-year, $3.2M deal that walked him to free agency.
Wood had a typical Miles Wood season in 2022-23. He would show some offensive touch and chip in his 13 goals and 14 assists. He’d play with a ton of speed. He’s play a physical brand of hockey. And he could commit a ton of penalties…..to the point where then coach Lindy Ruff would scratch him in the playoffs as Wood’s offensive zone penalties were backbreakers. For the most part though, I think Wood did what he was more or less expected to do, making the deal fair.
Grade: B-
Damon Severson, 8 years, $6.25M AAV
Date: June 8th, 2023
While I graded this trade and gave Fitzgerald a good grade for the creativity shown with this deal, I think it would be unfair for me to grade Fitzgerald for this contract itself. Yes, Fitzgerald is the GM who technically signed him to the deal, but at the end of the day, Columbus negotiated this deal with Severson. The Devils involvement here was to get Severson the 8th year on the deal, and I’m not in the business of grading Jarmo Kekalainen signings.
Grade: None
Jesper Bratt, 8 years, $7.85M AAV
Date: June 15th, 2023
Having played out a few bridge deals, the time was finally right for Fitzgerald and Bratt’s camp to agree to a long-term deal, cementing his spot as a core piece moving forward.
Bratt has continued to elevate his game, setting new career highs in points in the first two seasons of this deal and setting the Devils franchise record for assists in a season. His counting stats have taken a slight dip this season thanks in part to a shooting slump, but he’s also a good week away from being well over a PPG player again.
Grade: A
Erik Haula, 3 years, $3.15M AAV
Date: June 23rd, 2023
After a really good first season in New Jersey, Fitzgerald signed Haula to a three-year deal to keep him from hitting UFA.
Haula had a solid second season in New Jersey with 16 goals and 19 assists in 76 games. His production took a bit of a hit in Year 2 of that deal, as Haula likely was playing through some ailment that hampered his production.
Fitzgerald wound up trading Haula with one year left on this deal in a salary-dump trade to Nashville.
Grade: C+
Timo Meier, 8 years, $8.8M AAV
After making the deal to acquire Meier, Fitzgerald needed to find a way to get him signed long-term so this deal wasn’t just an extended rental, and he did just that.
Meier hasn’t quite been “highest paid forward on the team” good, but with 142 points in 200 games as a Devil at the time of this writing, he’s been good. With two 50+ point seasons, he’s been good.
He hasn’t been consistently great, which I think is the hangup here.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call the Meier contract a disaster through two seasons and a quarter of a season. Meier is at least on pace to have his best season as a Devil, and the Devils are going to need it if they’re going to make a run.
Grade: B+
Nathan Bastian, 2 years, $1.35M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2023
A pending RFA (although it should be noted that the Devils non-tendered both him and the next player on this list prior to market opening), Bastian was due for a slight raise. This deal accomplished that.
Bastian went through two injury-plagued seasons after signing this deal. He had his moments, with his performance in the Stadium Series game standing out, but the Devils decided to move on as Bastian his UFA at the completion of this deal.
Grade: C
Michael McLeod, 1 year, $1.4M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2023
Another pending RFA, the Devils re-signed McLeod to a one-year deal.
McLeod was on his way to a career-best season in terms of points, two-way play, and winning faceoffs. But his season (and NHL career, effectively) came to an abrupt end due to his alleged involvement in the Hockey Canada scandal. McLeod and his co-defendants were ultimately found not guilty of all charges.
One could say that Fitzgerald should’ve had an idea that McLeod would’ve been dragged into the Hockey Canada mess and he should’ve planned accordingly. I think its tough to say what Fitzgerald should have known. In terms of that, the deal itself is questionable. In terms of hockey value on the ice, it was more than reasonable. I’m grading off of what McLeod did on the ice in that particular season before it came to an end, so my grade will be more favorable as a result.
Grade: B
Tomas Nosek, 1 year, $1M AAV
Date: July 19th, 2023
After the initial wave of free agency passed, the Devils added some depth by signing the veteran Czech center to a one year deal.
I think this was a decent idea by Fitzgerald given Nosek’s track record. Unfortunately, a foot injury early in the season really hampered his production and lingered all year, making Nosek a mostly ineffective player.
Grade: D+
Kevin Bahl, 2 years, $1.05M AAV
Date: July 31st, 2023
Having established himself as an NHL regular in the latter half of the 2022-23 season, Kevin Bahl was due a new contract. He got a two-year deal at a hair over $1M AAV.
Bahl was good in his first full NHL season, playing all 82 games. The Devils traded him to Calgary as part of the Jacob Markstrom trade and he’s played in a top pairing role and been extended since.
Grade: A-
Kurtis MacDermid, 3 years, $1.15M AAV
Date: May 17th, 2024
Trading for MacDermid was one thing. Signing him to a three year deal is another.
Simply put, there was zero reason to sign MacDermid to a three-year extension six weeks before the market opened. It doesn’t matter that the AAV was low enough to be buriable (something the Devils never actually did while he was on the roster). Good general managers should simply never commit that much term to a 14th forward in the lineup. Never mind one who is only good at punching faces and literally nothing else.
The Devils were able to move off of the final 2 years of MacDermid’s deal when they flipped him for Zach MacEwen, but that doesn’t make the deal or the logic behind it any less egregious.
Grade: F-
Nick DeSimone, 1 year, $775K AAV
Date: June 24th, 2024
The Devils re-signed Nick DeSimone after he played 11 games for them the previous season as a waiver claim. DeSimone wound up never playing for the Devils NHL team under this contract though, as he was claimed off of waivers by the Utah Hockey Club.
Grade: None
Brett Pesce, 6 years, $5.5M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2024
After letting Damon Severson and Ryan Graves walk out the door the year prior, the Devils struggled defensively the following season. They needed to add some quality defensive defensemen to help insulate their younger defensemen in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.
Enter Brett Pesce.
Pesce, a Tarrytown New York native, was looking for a change of scenery after 9 good seasons in Carolina. The Devils traded away John Marino to open up the cap space to sign Pesce, and its tough to say that Pesce hasn’t been what the Devils wanted.
Pesce has eaten a ton of minutes playing in a top pairing role with Luke Hughes, elevating both of their games in the process. He’s also eaten a lot of pucks, as a puck to the hand has knocked Pesce out of the lineup in Year 2 of that deal. He’s already missed over a month, although hopefully he’ll be back in the not too distant future.
Grade: A-
Brenden Dillon, 3 years, $4M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2024
The Devils doubled down on their defensive investment, inking Dillon to a three-year deal.
Dillon struggled a bit in Year 1 but has looked much better in Year 2. I don’t know how much of that might be health related….Dillon did play all 82 last season, but most players who even do that aren’t 100%. Perhaps some of it is tied with Brad Shaw’s tutelage, as Dougie Hamilton has also looked better defensively this season. Regardless, Dillon has continued to be a physical presence on the Devils blueline, recently playing his 1,000th NHL game.
Grade: B
Stefan Noesen, 3 years, $2.75M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2024
The Devils reunited with Stefan Noesen on a three-year pact and right out of the gates, this deal looked like a steal.
Noesen set career highs in goals and points, scoring 11 power play goals while bringing a physical presence to the bottom six of the lineup.
Unfortunately, a groin injury hampered Noesen in the second half of the season. Noesen opted for rehab instead of surgery initially but ultimately went under the knife sometime over the summer, delaying his start to this season.
Noesen has gotten off to a slow start this year, and he hasn’t had the power play time he had last year to boost his counting stats. I would expect him to heat up at some point but it is something that needs to be noted.
Grade: B–
Tomas Tatar, 1 year, $1.8M AAV
Date: July 2nd, 2024
After a down year split between Seattle and Colorado, the Devils brought back Tomas Tatar hoping to recapture of of the magic he had with the team in 2022-23. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Tatar’s ice time continued to decline as he struggled to score, but his game isn’t really suited for a 4th line role, so he was stuck in that awkward spot where he’s not scoring enough to be higher in the lineup but doesn’t do enough of the little things further down in the lineup to stay. It wound up being Tatar’s final NHL season for now as the veteran decided to continue his career overseas.
At $1.8M AAV, even for just the one year, it was an overpay for the level of production the Devils got.
Grade: F
Nico Daws, 2 years, $812,500 AAV
Date: July 30th, 2024
With Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen in place at the NHL level, the Devils chose Nico Daws over Akira Schmid as the organizational #3 netminder, a role he has served in the last season and a quarter.
Daws has looked good in the limited NHL opportunities he has received since then. He seems unlikely to get more opportunities at the NHL level anytime soon though barring injuries or ineffectiveness of one of the players in front of him on the depth chart. More on that in a bit.
Grade: B
Dawson Mercer, 3 years, $4M AAV
Date: September 20th, 2024
Coming off of his ELC, Mercer was due a new contract. The Devils went with a three year deal to cover his first three seasons of RFA status.
Mercer didn’t have a great first season as he managed 19 goals and 17 assists in the 2024-25 season. He’s gotten off to a hot start this season though.
Mercer has had to slide back to center with the Devils dealing with injuries to Cody Glass and Jack Hughes, and he hasn’t been quite as good centering a line as he’s been playing the wingman with Nico Hischier. He’s also cooled off a bit since the hot start to the season, which I guess is to be expected.
Grade: B+
Johnathan Kovacevic, 5 years, $4M AAV
Date: March 7th, 2025
This is one of those deals that looks fine on the surface, but the timing of it was questionable at best.
Kovacevic came over to the Devils prior to the 2024-25 season and was expected to be the extra defenseman, but he won a spot in the lineup outright out of training camp. He got off to a great start on a pairing with Jonas Siegenthaler and looked so good, the Devils wanted to sign him to a contract extension. So they did that in the days leading up to the trade deadline.
Extending Kovacevic, both in terms of the timing and the deal itself, raised eyebrows. Putting the salary cap aside for a moment, the Devils already had Hamilton and Pesce signed long-term. They already had the top prospect in Simon Nemec trying to get playing time at the NHL level. They already had another RHD prospect in Seamus Casey who got some NHL time that season. They didn’t sign Kovacevic for $4M to be a healthy scratch, so did this mean they were trying to flip a defenseman? We never really got answers to this question, as the Devils didn’t trade any of their other RHD at the deadline in 2025. They still haven’t traded them to this day.
To make matters worse, Kovacevic suffered a serious lower body injury in the playoff series loss to Carolina. He has yet to make his debut for the Devils this season and likely won’t do so until some time after the New Year, which is a deliberately vague timeline.
Between the injury and Nemec’s growth, its fair to question whether or not the Kovacevic extension was even necessary. I would guess that it was in that the Devils clearly like the player. Kovacevic’s deal was in line with the UFA defenseman market this past summer so its tough to call it an overpay. If anything, Fitzgerald probably saved a couple bucks doing it when they did.
That said, he has yet to play a game under this new deal and we have no idea how Kovacevic will look when he does play. Even when he does return, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will ‘look right’ physically as he works himself back into game shape. I would grade this deal as an ‘incomplete’ for now, but there’s a wide range of potential outcomes depending upon how he looks when he eventually does return.
Grade: Incomplete
Juho Lammikko, 1 year, $800,000 AAV
Connor Brown, 3 years, $4M AAV
Dennis Cholowski, 1 year, $775,000 AAV
Evgenii Dadonov, 1 year, $1M AAV
Cody Glass, 2 years, $2.5M AAV
Luke Glendening, 1 year, $775,000 AAV
I lump all of these deals together because I’m going to grade them all as incomplete, but I did want to talk about each one.
Lammikko returned to the NHL this season after a three-year stint at Zurich SC of the Swiss-A league. He’s mostly served as the extra forward, only playing out of necessity due to the amount of injuries the Devils have had, and hasn’t done much of note in the games he has played in.
Brown was the Devils big UFA signing this past summer. He got off to a nice start before missing 7 games with an injury, but is one of the lone bright spots in the bottom six this season.
The Devils saw something in Dennis Cholowski to bring him back as the 7th defenseman this season. I’m not sure exactly what they see in him.
Dadonov got injured on Opening Night, missed the next 18 games, and returned to the lineup and has since gone back on the shelf with another injury.
Glass has a handful of goals in the early portion of the season, but also missed two separate stretches this season due to injury. He’s back now and has been mostly fine as a bottom six center.
Luke Glendening was in camp on a PTO and impressed enough to earn a contract. He’s been about what you would expect from a player with his track record. A solid fourth line center who kills penalties and wins faceoffs.
I think between the fact that we’re only a third of the way through the season, and most of these players have missed significant time with injuries, it would only be fair to grade them as incomplete. Brown, Glass, and Glendening are trending towards being positive signings, while Lammikko and Cholowski are probably more on the negative side since they haven’t been very good. Dadonov is probably more on the negative side as well although he simply hasn’t played enough to make a definitive statement one way or another. Even so, most of these deals are short-term and if they don’t work out, the Devils will simply move on to the next wave of bargain bin UFA signings next summer.
Grade: Incomplete
Jake Allen, 5 years, $1.8M AAV
Date: July 1st, 2025
Considering Allen was slated to be the top UFA goaltender in a thin market, I’m still stunned that Fitzgerald convinced him to essentially sign a legacy contract.
Allen has certainly had a few stinkers, but he’s been mostly fine in net for the Devils in Year 1 of said deal. It goes without saying he’s clearly been the better of the two goaltenders, and probably should be playing something closer to 50 percent of the starts as long as Markstrom struggles. But it’s also year 1 of a 5-year deal for a goaltender who is 35 years old.
The best way of looking at this deal is probably similarly to how I looked at it when it was announced. Go year to year and see where your goaltending is. Obviously, you hope that Allen is still effective over the life of that deal, and if he’s not, you should be able to find a way out of it. Some might argue that this early into a multi-year deal that looking for an escape hatch isn’t a great way of looking at a contract but the AAV is low enough where it shouldn’t be an issue.
Grade: B
Luke Hughes, 7 years, $9M AAV
Date: October 1st, 2025
Coming off of his ELC, the Devils signed the youngest Hughes brother to a 7-year deal worth $9M AAV. They’re paying him to be a top-pairing defenseman, and due to circumstances, he has certainly played as a top-pairing defenseman this season, averaging over 23 minutes a night.
Luke’s production hasn’t quite taken that next step like older brother Quinn’s had in his age 22 season. Luke’s point totals are roughly on pace to match what he did the previous two seasons, while Quinn starting improving year to year to the point where he’s a perennial Norris trophy contender. Luke isn’t quite at that level yet. But he has also been asked to do a lot for this Devils team, including playing off-hand for a stretch when both Hamilton and Pesce were out.
There are two areas where I’d like to see Luke improve for him to take that next step. First, I do think his shot needs improvement. It’s not a heavy shot. Too many of these shot attempts are being blocked in front and anything that is getting through is an easy save for the goaltender, which suggests to me that he’s telestrating his shot too much and making it too easy on the opposition. I’d like to see a few more wrinkles added in this area in future years for him to truly become elite.
Secondly, Luke does need to improve his decision making with the puck. I acknowledge that when the puck is on your stick as much as it is with him, and you play as many minutes a night as he is, turnovers come with the territory. Hughes ranks 6th among NHL defensemen in giveaways as of this writing. It’s a delicate balance because you don’t want to take offensive creativity out of his game but you do need to be smarter with the puck, especially when the team has struggled to keep the puck out of the net as much as they have.
If you asked me today if Luke is playing like a $9M AAV defenseman, I’d say no. But I do think he’s on track to get there and it would be silly to say that a 22-year old defenseman who has yet to cross the 200 NHL game threshold is what he is always going to be moving forward. If four years from now, Luke hasn’t improved any more than he has and this is what he is, I think that would be a disappointment given his pedigree and bloodlines. Even so, we’re still talking about a top-pairing defenseman playing tough minutes and contributing 45-50 points a season, which isn’t nothing. Maybe he’s not a $9M AAV defenseman, but its closer to $7M AAV in that case. Considering how much the cap is going up, and considering the player itself, I think the deal is still worth the gamble.
Grade: B
Jacob Markstrom, 2 years, $6M AAV
Date: October 31st, 2025
Most of the deals that Fitzgerald has signed in the last few months are still at the point where its too soon to judge. I think there are two exceptions to that. One of them being the Luke Hughes deal I just wrote about.
The other being Jacob Markstrom.
Markstrom was slated to hit UFA after this upcoming season, but the Devils simply decided that they had to have him going forward. Never mind the fact that he’s going to be 36 years old when the new deal starts. Never mind the fact that Markstrom already missed time this season due to injury. Never mind the fact that Markstrom had yet to actually play well this season when he put pen to paper on the contract.
The timing of the Markstrom contract talks never made any sense. This was a correct first-guess on my part and I know most of you felt the same way.
There was zero reason for the Devils to sign Markstrom when they did, other than “we know there’s going to be nothing on the market next summer and this option is better than those options”. That may or may not be true, but the fact that Markstrom has looked as bad as he has in the early portion of the season just underscores the fact that they didn’t need to do this now. The Devils goaltending duo for the foreseeable future is going to be Markstrom and Allen, and while this deal does set up for Mikhail Yegorov to eventually take over down the road, there are other ways the Devils could’ve bridged that gap that didn’t involve haphazardly giving Markstrom $6M AAV.
I’m not saying that Tom Fitzgerald should be fired for giving Markstrom this deal. But I am going to say that this has the potential to end very poorly for him if Markstrom doesn’t improve. In fairness, Markstrom has had some games this season where he has looked good, but those have been few and far between. If Markstrom doesn’t show that he’s at least playable on a consistent basis, this is the type of self-inflicted mistake that can and should cost the GM who gave him that deal his job. This is a “fireable offense” type of signing that, and I can not stress this enough, DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN WHEN IT DID.
The good news is that there is time for the narrative to change. But Markstrom needs to show it. If he doesn’t, it’s on the GM as much as it’s on the player because this is his guy and to extend him when they did was totally unnecessary.
Grade: F–
Final Thoughts
I think if one were to look at each signing on an individual basis and not really consider the context of how it fits in the salary cap, one could conclude there’s probably been more good than bad in the Fitzgerald regime.
There have been some excellent values, with Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Jonas Siegenthaler coming to mind. The Devils have also, in general, done a good job of correctly identifying which young players are worth investing in going forward and which ones weren’t. There’s been a couple minor whiffs along the way, but nothing that really made a huge impact going forward.
The problem is that this is a salary cap league, and when Fitzgerald has swung big and missed, it’s been bad.
There have been a lot of signings as the Devils have pushed forward from ‘rebuilding’ to ‘win now’ mode. Fitzgerald has made use of the ample cap space he inherited, but what has he actually done with it? The Devils have a couple playoff appearances to show for it, but I wouldn’t say they’re close to competing for a championship right now, let alone winning one. They’re capped out, but they’re stuck in the mushy middle of the standings with no obvious path to improvement. This is a problem created by Fitzgerald.
The Devils have a few problematic contracts on their books as we speak. Palat is on the books for one more season after this one at $6M AAV. Hamilton has two years to go at $9M AAV. We have no idea what Kovacevic will even look like once he finally returns, and he has four more years at $4M AAV remaining after this season. The Devils also threw away future flexibility by giving their starting goaltender who can’t make a save $6M AAV for two more seasons. This last point speaks to a larger issue he’s had where fixing the goaltending has become a perennial theme, as he inherited this issue on Day 1 of his run and it’s arguably still one today. Considering the Devils have ALSO invested draft capital into the goaltending position almost every year of the last decade, it’s inexcusable. Where are the results?
Now, the cap situation isn’t THAT dire where it should prevent them from figuring out what the next contracts for guys like Simon Nemec and Arseny Gritsyuk are, but it does make one question how are you fixing the obvious holes the roster still has. Where are you finding another center, or a scoring winger? You probably aren’t unless you’re getting creative.
Elliotte Friedman alluded to “several no-trade or modified no-trade clauses” being the holdup for the Devils getting business done, and it’s certainly plausible that that cost them an opportunity to land Quinn Hughes this past week. Fitzgerald has been generous with handing out no-trade protection in free agency. He’s also far from the only general manager who is pretty liberal when it comes to handing out no-trade protection. But when we’re getting to the point where its preventing the Devils from getting business done, it’s an issue. It’s also an issue that the Devils haven’t really gotten any sweetheart deals by UFAs (with the possible exception of Jake Allen). They’ve mostly paid market value for the players they have.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the Devils still have to become salary cap compliant at some point later this season once everyone is healthy…..pause to laugh at the idea that they’ll ever all be healthy at the same time. But they are planning on getting Jack Hughes, Brett Pesce, Simon Nemec, Johnathan Kovacevic, Arseni Gritsyuk, Evgenii Dadonov, and Zack MacEwen back at some point later this season. Unless the plan is to live in LTIR all season, there’s not a lot of flexibility to do much of anything right now.
Of course, it shouldn’t actually be this difficult to move out bad money. It’s not difficult to pull up PuckPedia and see which teams have space, which ones do not, and figure out where a deal can be made. This is a league where general managers find a way out of problematic contracts all the time, and to quote “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, “Everyone’s got a price”. It would require Fitzgerald to be more ruthless and cutthroat than he has been as the GM of this team, but the idea that it can’t be done is simply a fallacy.
When you’re paying players upwards of $4M a year or more and you’re giving them significant term though, you need to be right on those deals. If you’re wrong, its much harder to find a way out via a trade. At the end of the day, there’s probably more good than bad with Fitzgerald’s history, but the bad has been egregiously bad, it’s impacting the team in a significant manner right now, and is going to continue having an impact on the current team for quite some time until they do something to address it.
