Team: 2022-23 New Jersey Devils

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 7, 2022

Published: Jul. 7, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This is a pipe dream. Would never happen, but the point is, it could. Devils have the cap. They have the assets. They’ve picked like 50 players over the last 6 years, so picks are up for grabs. Also, CapFriendly already moved 2022 picks for tonight’s draft, so pretend all of the picks involved are for 2022. Bernier to LTIR. Let’s get to it:

Trades:

10 years after Zach Parise and Ryan Suter team up in Minnesota, Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau do the same in New Jersey. Sucks to give up Bratt and what would’ve been Juraj Slafkovsky, but the Devils get Matthew Tkachuk back LFG. After a week of dreaded rumors, Gaudreau signs in Free Agency. Both contracts are similar value (75M~) with Tkachuk getting the extra year.

Long rumored Vancouver interest make their move for Pavel Zacha and give up a 3rd rd pick. Devils could probably get another asset here as well.

Toronto looks to shore up their goaltending and move a 2nd rd pick and the rights to Ilya Lyubushkin for Mackenzie Blackwood.

Washington decides to stick with Ilya Samsonov and trades Vitek Vanecek for a 2nd rd pick.

Finally, Devils move Andreas Johnsson to Arizona for a 4th rd pick. Cap dump.

Free Agency:

Devils sign Gaudreau, Lyubushkin, and Husso. They stick with cost-controlled internal depth to fill out the rest of their roster. About 2M~ in cap space.

There you have it, the greatest offseason of all-time. Fitz goes from absolute chump to Bossman and gets himself an extension, and a bonafied playoff team. The whole hockey world is talking about THIS Devils offseason being the one that put them on the map, and the likes of Tkachuk/Hughes/Gaudreau/Hischier becoming one of the best cores in the league. Devils fans can finally step off the ledge.

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