The New Jersey Devils have spent the offseason stacking pieces for a run at contender status, but the conversation around the club still keeps circling back to a few unresolved questions. Dougie Hamilton’s future remains one of them, while former prospect Calen Addison is on the move to the KHL, and Sunny Mehta’s first summer as general manager is starting to reveal how he wants to build this roster.
Hamilton’s name has lingered in trade talk for months. The buzz picked up in January after he was a healthy scratch against the Winnipeg Jets, even though that decision came after Johnathan Kovacevic returned from long-term injured reserve.
J.P. Barry, Hamilton’s agent, suggested the situation was a business move.
Later, Elliotte Friedman reported that Hamilton had already used his contract’s no-movement clause to block a trade to the San Jose Sharks last summer.
For now, the Devils still can’t move him without his approval, and he also has a 10 team trade list. Whether Mehta will actually push to deal him soon is unclear.
Hamilton still brings real value as a top-four defenseman and a threat from the blue line, and he showed it after the Olympic break with 18 points in 25 games. He also worked his way back onto the top power-play unit and posted strong underlying numbers, including a 57.29 on-ice expected goals percentage (xGF%).
Even with that, the possibility of a move has not disappeared, particularly after the blockbuster trade involving Simon Nemec.
Addison’s path is headed in a very different direction. After spending most of the last two seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL), he is expected to join the Shanghai Dragons in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Drafted 53rd overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2018, Addison also had time with the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks before landing with New Jersey on a one-year, two-way deal last July.
He only played for the Utica Comets, despite being recalled in December of last year. In 2025-26, he put up 31 points in 65 games, but he became an unrestricted free agent this summer after the Devils did not give him a qualifying offer. After being stuck in an AHL role and not appearing in the NHL since 2023-24 with Minnesota, the overseas move makes sense as a reset and a chance to keep his NHL hopes alive down the line.
Mehta’s approach in New Jersey is also coming into focus. In an interview with Peter Baugh of The Athletic, he laid out how he thinks about roster building in his first offseason on the job, leaning heavily on statistical models and data to make calculated bets on players with upside.
“In a lot of ways, that’s not fundamentally different as a problem than predicting the future volatility of stocks or the future outcomes of poker hands,” said Mehta (from ‘New Jersey Devils GM Sunny Mehta, ex-poker pro, hopes small roster bets lead to big payoffs,’ The Athletic, 8/7/26).
That mindset has already shown up in the moves he’s made. The biggest one came when he sent Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers and brought back Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist, both expected to strengthen the third and fourth lines. He also took swings on lesser-known names, trading two fourth-round picks for Amadeus Lombardi and Declan Chisholm ahead of the 2026 Draft because of their skating and puck-moving skills.
Mehta also singled out four players he’s especially excited about: Lenni Hameenaho, Seamus Casey, Matyas Melovsky, and Nico Daws. He likes the depth he has built into the organization, but he also made it clear his work with the Devils is far from finished.
In Other News...
Quinn Hughes Just Gave Devils Fans A Reason To Keep Hoping
Quinn Hughes has become one of the more intriguing names in this offseason tug-of-war, and the latest chatter only adds to the intrigue for Devils fans who are watching every twist. Elliotte Friedman has suggested a three-year deal could land in the neighborhood of $18 million annually, which is the kind of framework that keeps a major player in play without locking anything down too far into the future.
The wrinkle in all of this is the leverage game around Minnesota, where Hughes camp appears to be pushing hard as the Wild weigh how much they are willing to commit. For New Jersey, the hook is obvious: if the market keeps moving and family becomes part of the equation, the Devils remain one of the teams with a real reason to stay on alert, even if the next move still belongs to someone else. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Prospects Are Headed For A Crowded Battle In Utica
Uticas blue line is shaping up to be one of the more interesting parts of the Devils development pipeline heading into the upcoming season. A look at the Comets projected defensive pairings assumes Declan Chisholm is elsewhere with New Jersey, which opens the door for a group that could feature Anton Silayev, Seamus Casey, Vladislav Kolyachonak, Mikael Diotte, Topias Vilen and Ethan Edwards in different combinations.
Of course, these kinds of AHL pairings are never set in stone for long, and that is part of what makes the picture so crowded. The projections are really a snapshot of depth and possibility more than a fixed lineup, but they do underline how many young defensemen the Devils will be trying to sort through in Utica, with roles and partners likely to shift as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Face A Dawson Mercer Decision That Could Define This Roster
As the Devils keep sorting through a roster that still feels like its searching for its final shape under general manager Sunny Mehta, Dawson Mercer has emerged as one of the more consequential names on the board. He has been a steady presence in the lineup and one of the more reliable young forwards on the team, which is part of what makes his situation so delicate. Mercer is entering the last year of his current deal with a $4 million cap hit, and for a club trying to balance present expectations with long-term structure, that puts him squarely in the middle of the conversation.
New Jersey can keep him as a dependable piece and work toward a long-term extension, which would fit the idea of building around players who have already shown they can handle a full load. It can also decide that Mercers value might be highest in a larger trade, the kind that brings back a more impactful name and changes the look of the roster in one swing. The question is not whether Mercer matters, but whether the Devils think he is better used as part of the foundation or as the kind of asset that could help them chase a bigger move. [Read more 🡒]