There isn’t much money available to the New Jersey Devils to get what they want this summer. Every position is necessary, even the more expensive ones like starting goaltender and top-six winger. They must make every effort to prioritize their financial resources. Capfriendly claims that the Devils have less than $19 million to spend this offseason, but that amount will quickly drop given the addition of a goalie and the re-signing of Dawson Mercer.
Thus, the Devils must be audacious in their roster filling. While many will point to Ondrej Palat and others will want to conduct buyouts themselves, it is most definitely not going to happen. Conversely, other teams will make use of their buyout rights. While some teams will use them to obtain the required cap space, others are only trying to make the roster new. In any case, the Devils can sign these guys for less than their market value to capitalize on this situation. (All of the buyout information following was also obtained using CapFriendly.)
Josh Anderson
Montreal Canadiens
It seems like a long time coming for this one. Supporters of the Montreal Canadiens have long pushed for Josh Anderson to be traded to the New Jersey Devils. The supporters demanded absurd returns, such as Simon Nemec, who was selected with the second overall pick in 2022 (the Canadiens selected Juraj Slafkovsky with the first pick that year).
Josh Anderson was once a good player, don’t get us wrong. But he now proudly owns one of the worst hockey contracts ever. There are still three years left on his contract, which will pay him $5.5 million a season. Despite playing in 78 games last season, he only scored 20 points.
Even though he would be available for less money, one could wonder why the Devils would want a player of that caliber, but the The previous iteration of Anderson is just what this team requires. He could hit, block shots, and avoid an absurd number of penalties (he still takes some, but not an absurd number) as a 15–25 goal scorer. A year earlier, he had 21 games scored.
This team needs Anderson’s previous iteration exactly. As a 15–25 goal scorer, he could hit, block shots, and avoid an absurd amount of penalties (he still takes some, but not an absurd amount). He scored goals in 21 games the previous year.
Be the first to comment