The New Jersey Devils have some room to shop for value this offseason, and a few non-tendered forwards around the league could fit that mold.
That matters because New Jersey is coming off a season that landed in the bottom third of the league, even if the roster has to be built like a playoff team. Injuries knocked top players out last year and shortened the season’s promise, but there’s still a chance to rebound. Jack Hughes’ Golden Goal in February was the moment his game kicked into another gear in the NHL games that followed, and when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best players in the league.
Now Sunny Mehta, in his first offseason as an NHL General Manager, has to keep adding pieces. The Devils have already announced qualifying offers for some players, but they’ve also moved on from a few. That opens the door to the bargain bin, where a few useful forwards are sitting after being let go elsewhere.
Philipp Kurashev is one name worth a look. He had the best year of his career when he was lined up with Connor Bedard, finishing the 2023-24 season with 18 goals and 36 assists for 54 points.
Since then, he hasn’t cleared 20 points in a season. But after posting 7 goals and 13 assists for 20 points exactly with the San Jose Sharks in 2025-26, he’s available after being non-tendered.
For a Devils team looking for depth up front, that makes sense. Kurashev is also Swiss-born, which would make him the fourth Swiss player on New Jersey’s roster alongside Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Jonas Siegenthaler.
If any club could get something more out of him in a bottom-six role for cheap, it’s one with that kind of built-in connection.
Matias Maccelli brings a different kind of value. He was a steady offensive depth piece for a rough Maple Leafs team in 2025-26, putting up 14 goals and 25 assists for 39 points in 71 games during his first season in Toronto.
He’s not the type to handle every situation, but he can chip in secondary scoring and take some pressure off the top of the lineup. After being let go by the Maple Leafs, he should come at a reasonable cost for New Jersey or anyone else looking for help.
Philip Tomasino is the wild card of the group. He’s been through the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins organizations, and the former first-round pick, taken 24th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, hasn’t had the kind of NHL run he expected.
Last season, he appeared in just 9 NHL games and had one assist. Even so, there’s a path for him to help New Jersey in a different way: improving the Utica Comets.
Utica needs more skill for a bounce-back season, and the idea would be to surround young players with quality veterans. Tomasino could fill that role as an AHL option.
In Other News...
Devils Free Agency Just Turned Into A Franchise Defining Day
Free agency arrived with the kind of early turbulence that can reshape a roster before most teams even settle into their plans. The Devils have already been tied to a significant addition in Arseny Gritsyuk, while the wider market has moved fast enough to remind everyone how quickly one move can affect the next. For a team trying to stay on the right side of contention, these are the kinds of days that force every decision to matter a little more.
The real weight, though, sits in the Devils own room, where the next move involving Nico Hischier could define how the franchise frames this stretch of its build. When a captain becomes part of the central offseason conversation, it says plenty about where the organization thinks it is and where it wants to go. Add in the ripple effects from other major league moves, including the stalled Zach Werenski situation, and this has already become the sort of day that can alter the tone of an entire summer. [Read more 🡒]
This Devils Signing Feels Like The First Clue To Something Bigger
The Devils quietly added another piece to their blue line picture by signing Vladislav Kolyachonok to a one-year, one-way deal worth $850,000 after Dallas did not qualify him. Kolyachonok brings NHL experience from stops with the Stars and Coyotes, and on paper he gives New Jersey another left-handed option at a time when the team is trying to sort out its defensive depth.
Kolyachonok alone is not the kind of move that changes a season, but it does add to a crowded side of the roster and makes the Devils defensive picture a little more interesting. A signing like this can be read as basic depth insurance, or it can be the first small sign that bigger roster decisions are coming, especially with so many left-shot defenders already in the mix. [Read more 🡒]