Team: 2023-24 New Jersey Devils

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 25, 2023

Published: Mar. 26, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Additions:

• Frederick Gaudreau - in an attempt to add extra grit in the middle 6, Tom Fitzgerald signs Freddy Gaudreau, a scoring forward who is great on the defensive end and can swap between center and wing

• Justin Holl - as Severson may want a lot of money and term, we look to Holl as a defenseman we can sign short term and for cheap while Simon Nemec continues to develop in Utica.

• Anthony Stolarz - we sign a goaltender to back up Vanecek for a year, as Blackwood seems to be consistently injured and high maintanence, while Schmid develops in Utica. This one should be taken with a grain of salt however, as Stolarz just had knee surgery and may have the same injury issues as Blackwood has now upon returning from injury. However, this still works because if he gets re-injured, we could still bring Schmid up and continue developing him in the NHL.

Luke Hughes - after an incredible season in the NCAA, Fitz throws an ELC as Luke and has him come over for this years playoffs and start here on the second pair next year.

• Alex Holtz - after continuing working hard during the off-season, Holtz blows it up in preseason and finds himself starting the season on the 3rd line.

• Nolan Foote - after showing hope this season, Nolan continues to develop and makes the team next season.

Subtractions:

• Yegor Sharangovich - in wanting to have more grit and talent, Tom Fitzgerald trades Yegor this off-season. We’ve seen constant cold streaks from him and seen that he really only plays consistently well in the top 6, where there may not be a spot for him next season, so we send him somewhere where he will get a better chance.

• Jesper Boqvist - with depth in players like Curtis Lazar, Nolan Foote, Graeme Clarke, etc., there will not really be a place for someone like Boqvist to slot into the lineup, so we either place him on waivers or trade him.

• Mackenzie Blackwood - after another season full of injury and inconsistency, I cannot see us giving Mac a QO, and simply either trying to trade him or letting him go to UFA

• Damon Severson - wanting too much term, we will probably have to let him walk to free agency in order to save a future spot for Simon Nemec

• Ryan Graves - a similar situation to Severson, wanting either too much money/term and us having Luke Hughes just sort of pushes Graves to free agency.

• Tomas Tatar - a bit of an odd case here, we might keep him but I feel like Tom Fitzgerald wants more grit and therefore lets Tatar go to free agency.

• Miles Wood - This one is pretty self explanatory. Wood has not been good and especially not 3.2 million dollar good. We just let him walk to free agency rather than even offering him another contract.

Extensions:

• Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier - both pretty obvious, try as hard as possible to keep our star players

• Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian - another two that are one in the same, good bottom 6 grit, and would probably be willing to extend for cheap.

Erik Haula - I feel like this is a player that Fitz would definitely want to keep. He has been great when not shoehorned into a spot where we should be (i.e. the top 6) and is great on the defensive end and penalty kill.

Kevin Bahl - Fitz decides to give Bahl a 2 year extension and play over Smith after a season where he well deserved it.