The New Jersey Devils still have room to make their training camp a little more competitive, and a PTO is one easy way to do it.
The roster is mostly in place, with some extra bodies already around the bottom six, the left side of the defense, and in goal. But even with that, there’s still value in bringing in veterans on Professional Try-Outs and seeing who sticks.
The Devils have not exactly turned PTOs into gold lately. Last year brought Kevin Rooney and Luke Glendening, with the latter being the wrong choice.
In 2024, they had Kevin Labanc on a PTO and let him walk, only for him to post decent numbers in a half season for Columbus. In 2023, Max Willman came through on a PTO before signing, and that worked out poorly.
The last really good stretch came in 2021, when Jimmy Vesey, Mark Jankowski, and Tyler Wotherspoon were in camp, though the real miss was not keeping Jankowski with Vesey and Wotherspoon.
Still, there are NHL-caliber players out there who could make sense on a tryout. Here are six names that could fit the Devils.
Adam Henrique is the oldest of the group at 36, and he’s coming off a rough offensive year in a shutdown role with the Edmonton Oilers. Even so, HockeyViz and Evolving-Hockey still like his underlying numbers, and the finishing just wasn’t there for him the way it usually has been.
With Colin White now in the mix, Sunny Mehta has already added more competition for Nick Bjugstad’s fourth-line center job, and Henrique would give the Devils a chance to cut that cap hit in half while likely getting better production than they would from Bjugstad. He’s a real NHL player, and this feels like a strong fit.
Nathan Bastian is another familiar name for Devils fans, and he turned in a pretty solid season as Dallas’ 13th forward last year. He brings the kind of defensive presence teams want on the bottom six, and he’d make sense if Stefan Noesen is still having trouble getting back from injuries that have lingered over the last two seasons.
Health is part of the equation with Bastian too, since his shoulder has bothered him at times, but he still scored six goals in 36 games last season. He also knows Sheldon Keefe, and if he can finally stay healthy, there’s a 10 or 15-goal player in there.
Adam Boqvist is coming off the worst season of his career with the New York Islanders, but the 25-year-old righty still has the profile of a puck-moving defenseman with upside. He turns 26 in a couple of weeks, and while he could be signed and sent to Utica, a strong camp would at least force some questions.
The Devils have more NHL-caliber left-shot defensemen than righties right now, even though the right side has dealt with injury issues. Boqvist brings more size, 272 games of NHL experience, and he had 6 points in 18 games in 2024-25 with Florida before the Islanders claimed him off waivers that season.
He’d be a tough player to crack the lineup, but playing alongside his brother could make the opportunity appealing.
Pierre-Olivier Joseph is another defenseman, and another left-shot, but he’s also one of the fastest skaters still on the market. His analytical profile is strong, even if he hasn’t fully locked in an NHL role since playing 75 games for Pittsburgh in 2022-23.
At 26, he fits a similar lane to Declan Chisholm and Vladislav Kolyachonok, and he could push that group a little harder in camp. Because the Devils already have so many contracts in that area, he looks like the least likely of the six, but he’s still a sensible name.
Pavol Regenda is a little more off the radar, but he brings size, recent scoring, and a useful contract wrinkle. The 26-year-old is a rare Group 6 UFA after scoring nine goals in 24 games for the San Jose Sharks.
In his NHL career, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound winger has 10 goals and three assists in 43 games, along with 78 hits. He also had three goals and two assists for Team Slovakia at the Olympics this year.
He would not count as an AHL veteran if he were passed through waivers, which adds to the appeal. HockeyViz sees him as a true bottom-six player, while Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM likes him more, but the basic case is simple: he’s a big winger who can score some goals, and that would put him in the mix with the Devils’ bottom-six wingers and Riley Tufte, the 6-foot-6 AHL veteran signed earlier in the offseason.
Matt Murray rounds out the list, and he’s the one that stands out most as a goaltending option. It’s a little surprising he remains unsigned this late in the offseason, even with his injury history.
He still posted a .922 save percentage in five NHL appearances for Seattle last season, and he didn’t play any AHL games because injuries kept him limited to practices for most of the year. If David Rittich isn’t a name the Devils are fully sold on, adding Murray would create more competition for the third-goalie spot.
The key is that he’s not someone you’d want to sign just to bury in the AHL, which makes him a better PTO candidate than a player to lock into a deal right now.
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