The New Jersey Devils have spent the past few weeks moving fast and stacking up decisions. Between the draft, contract extensions, offer sheets, free-agent signings and a full rebuild of the Utica Comets from the top down, Sunny Mehta has barely had a quiet moment.
All that activity has created a new problem: too many forwards and not enough room.
After bringing in Amadeus Lombardi from the Detroit Red Wings, trading Jacob Markstrom for Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist, and offer-sheeting Barrett Hayton, the Devils are projected to carry 15 rostered forwards if Utah does not match the offer sheet. Thirteen of those forwards would be making at least $1.5 million, with Lombardi and Lenni Hameenaho as the only exceptions. Hameenaho is also the lone waiver-exempt forward in that group.
That kind of crowding usually means more moves are coming.
New Jersey’s forward mix also points to a team leaning hard into center depth. There are seven natural centers projected on the roster, or eight if Hayton is included.
Dawson Mercer adds another layer, since he has spent plenty of time at center even though he has mostly played right wing. The Devils could choose to keep multiple centers together on the same line, which would make sense at the top of the lineup with Jack Hughes, whose faceoff work remains a problem even as he excels everywhere else.
That leaves the question of who gets squeezed out.
The players most at risk appear to be the ones whose contracts outstrip what they are giving the team on the ice. Mehta has shown a clear preference for forwards who can make an impact with and without the puck, and a few names in the current mix do not fit that profile especially well.
Mercer is one of them. He is not someone who consistently drives play with the puck on his stick, and instead tends to lean on his teammates to do that work. That is not automatically a flaw - players like Mika Zibanejad and Patrik Laine have succeeded that way - but it does seem to run against the kind of player Mehta appears to want, particularly if Mercer is being considered for a top-six role.
There are also other candidates who could be on the move. Nick Bjugstad, Stefan Noesen and Cody Glass all have cases for being dealt.
Bjugstad’s spot has become a bit redundant, and he does not do much with or around the puck. Noesen’s salary looks too heavy for the value he is providing right now.
Glass could be the most attractive trade chip of the group, especially as a potential sell-high option, even if he may never top that 19-goal mark again despite strong play.
For now, the Devils have options, and that matters. Mehta has already shown in his first three months as general manager that he is willing to keep reshaping the roster, and this forward logjam gives him room to keep doing exactly that.
In Other News...
Devils Just Lost Out On A Young Center They Clearly Wanted
The Devils made a run at Barrett Hayton, but Utah moved quickly to keep the young center in place by matching New Jerseys offer sheet. Hayton stays with the Mammoth on a one-year deal carrying a $4.775 million cap hit, a sign they were not interested in letting a 25-year-old piece of their forward group walk after targeting him as part of their next step.
For New Jersey, it is another reminder of how thin the margin can be when trying to add a center through the offer-sheet route. Hayton, the former No. 5 overall pick, is expected to remain in Utahs lineup and is now off the board for the next year, leaving the Devils to keep searching for the kind of middle-six help they clearly had in mind. [Read more 🡒]