Detailing How the Devils Can Clear Cap Space
The Devils need to shed some cap -- how exactly can they do so?
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Since the Devils were rudely kicked out of the playoffs a few weeks ago, I have gone through several free agent targets I would consider if I were running the team, many of which have predictably high price tags (Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Duchene, even Pius Suter).
One question I’ve (reasonably) received a ton, from here to Twitter to Reddit to Bluesky to Discord, has been “Sure, but how do the Devils make the cap work?”
There are actually quite a few ways New Jersey can shed some cap to clear the way for a better-built lineup, ranging from obvious and predictable to creative and unorthodox. With that in mind, let’s talk about ‘em.
Ondrej Palat
I was listening to Sleep Token while journeying on a business trip last night, and I thought of Palat1 when this lyric, from “Look to Windward,” was sung:
“Even in this garden of gardens, I am the god of the gaps.”
To quickly explain the lyrics, the “garden of gardens” is the Garden of Eden; paradise on Earth. The “god of the gaps,” meanwhile, is a philosophical argument that uses gaps in scientific knowledge to explain the existence of God — Thor being the God of Thunder or Poseidon being the God of the Sea are two examples of this thesis, relative to their respective pantheons.
In Devils’ terms, the garden of gardens — Utopia — is being a linemate of both Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, the Devils’ two most talented players. Truly, how does one keep from succeeding alongside those two?
Palat is a sort of reverse-engineered god of the gaps on this Devils team, in the sense that people love to use his status as a “playoff performer” to explain why it’s justified to keep him on the team despite his regular-season play. A common refutation of the god of the gaps theory is that it relies on justification from blanks in knowledge, similarly to how Palat’s justification for keeping him on the team is reliant on gaps in understanding just how poor he is in the regular season. Whereas Thor is the God of Thunder, Palat is the God of “Yeah, Well, He’s Good in the Postseason.”
Pairing it all together, Palat is the reverse god of the gaps (a player whose regular season performance is ignored for the argument that he is perceived to be better in the playoffs) despite getting ideal deployment in the garden of gardens (alongside Jack and Jesper).
Basically, this was all a long-winded way of saying that Palat isn’t worth his contract and that the Devils should be keen on moving off of it in one way or another, in the form of a song reference.
To put into perspective just how abysmal Palat was in 2024-25, at least in the regular season, check out the full list of Devils’ players’ expected goal shares (xGF%s) with and without #18 on the ice. Spoiler alert: it’s really harrowing.
The most straightforward option is a buyout, but that would still be a stain on the cap sheet. Here is how the Devils would be affected by a Palat buyout:
The better option for the organization would be a cap-dump trade. Palat’s full no-movement clause changes to a 10-team trade list, meaning that he will submit a list of ten teams he’d be willing to get moved to on July 1. The best fit, as my good buddies Todd Cordell and Alex Chauvancy have mentioned on their respective Substacks, is probably the Anaheim Ducks. Anaheim is an up-and-coming team with a ton of cap space and playoff aspirations — Palat has that perceived playoff aptitude and is a seasoned veteran in postseason hockey. Pat Verbeek, Tampa’s old assistant general manager, is now the GM of the Ducks, so there may be a connection there as well. Ex-Lightning player Alex Killorn is a current member of the team, too. There are a lot of reasons why it just makes sense.
The reality is that cap-floor teams are probably the best bet in terms of Palat’s next destination, if the Devils were able to move fully off his contract. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who I would argue are one of the most exciting young teams in the NHL and should be pushing for perennial playoff appearances now, have $41.27 million in cap space with just six contracts to hand out. The San Jose Sharks, who are going to take a few years to get to playoff contender status but have all the talent in the world, have almost $44 million, with 16 out of 23 contracts signed through at least next season.
Whether Palat will actually put one of those teams on his modified trade list is up in the air, but that’s the most likely route for the Devils to be rid of his full albatross contract. It would almost certainly need a sweetener (and a good one at that), but I’m absolutely a-okay giving up a second-round pick to move fully off that deal.
Erik Haula
The next obvious candidate for a cap-clearing move is 34-year-old Erik Haula, who is entering the last season of a contract with an AAV of $3.15 million.
A buyout, to me, doesn’t make all that much sense considering it would only save the Devils $1.6 million in 2025-26:
The more realistic scenario, to me, is a trade. Haula’s full no-trade clause swaps over to a six-team no-trade list for next season, meaning that he will submit a list of six teams he does not want to be traded to on July 1. Considering the stigma around veteran leadership, I don’t think it would be all that difficult to move him completely, and I don’t think it would require a sweetener.
Again, cap-floor teams might be interested, and there is legitimate utility in Haula’s game. He can play both on the wing and down the middle (and win faceoffs), is a defensive stud, and is legitimately one of the best penalty killers in the NHL. Why wouldn’t the Devils want him, then? It’s simple — it’s just time.
Haula, until he switched to playing wing near the trade deadline, was playing atrocious hockey. He had gone three months without a point and simply looked lost. I think that made a lot of people, including myself, sour on him and his contract. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have value around the league, though, as I’m sure Hockey Man GMs would salivate over acquiring the veteran who plays with an edge.
Kurtis MacDermid
It pains me to even have to write this, but the Devils should unquestionably be rid of Kurtis MacDermid and his perplexing contract. There was never a reason to trade for him and never a reason to extend him at all, let alone to a multi-year deal worth north of $1 million. He isn’t a “scary presence” that will make the opposition think twice about checking the Devils’ star players; he contributes precisely nothing to the team while in the lineup, and I quite frankly couldn't care any less about his locker room impact.
Winning teams don’t care about guys like MacDermid. Go ahead, name a truly competitive team with a true goon on their payroll.
Waive him or trade him. Hell, his contract can be buried in the minors — why hasn’t that happened yet? An extra $1.15 million can be extraordinarily useful in the NHL.
Dougie Hamilton
One notion I’ve seen thrown around on social media is that the Devils should get rid of Dougie Hamilton and his $9 million AAV contract.
I still can’t quite tell if I agree or not.
On one hand, I really like what Hamilton brings to the table. He’s one of the shootiest defensemen in the league and truly elite at getting pucks on net. I’d honestly argue he has the deadliest shot on the team. Very few defensemen in the league can tilt the ice like Dougie can, extending puck possessions endlessly by virtue of his wherewithal of when to shoot and when to pass down low. When things are going his way, it’s amazing to watch.
On the other hand, $9 million is a lot of money, and it’s probable that the Devils can get some legitimately great value out of him. Hamilton is a truly excellent defenseman, and teams like San Jose, Chicago, and Anaheim should be trying to vie for his services if he is made available. His services and skillset should be coveted by almost every team in the NHL, including the Devils. His contract moves to a 10-team trade list on July 1.
The other wrench in the equation is that the Devils have two right-handed defensemen with offensive upside riding pine in Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey. With a fully healthy lineup, Hamilton, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Brett Pesce leave no space for those two highly-touted prospects and their ELC-value contracts to break into the lineup on a daily basis.
Again, I don’t know what I would do. To me, Hamilton is a bit of a necessity considering the complexion of the Devils’ blueline as a whole. I’ve been pretty vocal about my theory that a truly competitive team needs three puck-moving defensemen to actually succeed, and I think the current playoff picture proves that. Edmonton has Evan Bouchard, Jake Walman, and John Klingberg. Florida has Aaron Ekblad, Seth Jones, Gustav Forsling, and Nate Schmidt. Carolina has Brent Burns, Dmitry Orlov, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jalen Chatfield, and Alexander Nikishin when called upon. Dallas is the only exception, having just Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley, but those are two elite players, and you could see the strain on the team in the regular season and playoffs when they were missing Heiskanen from injury.
The Devils, outside of Hamilton, currently only have Luke Hughes as a puck-mover. Sure, the idea is that his departure would give way to Nemec and Casey, both of whom can move the puck, but if you’re going to argue that the two youngsters are already equal or better than Hamilton in that regard, I don’t know what to tell you.
If they can get a legitimately great return for Hamilton, I could be persuaded. If that’s a non-option, I would rather move one or both of Nemec and Casey for an impact player on a team looking to rebuild or retool, as it’s known that those two have great trade value.
Dawson Mercer
Dawson Mercer has become the enemy of many a Devils fan over the course of the 2024-25 season, being demonized for his flatlined trajectory since his breakout campaign in 2022-23.
Me personally? I’m of the opinion that this is more a product of deployment than him actually being a bad player. Mercer is kind of just a guy out there, if you know what I mean, but he has a legitimate impact when he’s played with players who can move the puck from zone to zone at an elite rate. I would argue he’s the perfect winger for Jack and Jesper, as his quick trigger and high IQ in tight space lend themselves to success when theoretically playing alongside those transitional, play-driving heavyweights.
Regardless, the fact is that the 23-year-old probably has a ton of value — $4 million is a pretty reasonable cap hit, he hasn’t missed a single game in his career, he’s a hard worker, and he’s still quite young and has room to grow as a player. In my head, the likeliest scenario for a Mercer trade is one in which he’s used as a part of a package for an impact top-six player, but the Devils could get creative and trade him outright, too.
Either way, they’d be getting some relief to make room for better players.
Brenden Dillon
I like Brenden Dillon as a person, quite a bit. It’s abundantly clear that he is admired by the locker room (without being a complete and total plug like MacDermid), and he seems incredibly down-to-earth and kindhearted. I dissed him on Twitter once, which he immediately met with a follow — I found (and still find) that hilarious.
As a hockey player, though, I certainly have concerns with his game, especially for his $4 million pricetag.
Dillon was the classic Hockey Man acquisition, with his actual hockey-playing abilities being second to his grit and physicality. His on-ice impacts in both zones are middling at best, and his microstatistical profile is abysmal. He often looked lost against faster competition.
I know the ideology behind the acquisition was that when his contract expires in 2027, prospect Anton Silayev would be coming over from Russia, but I would be looking to get off the contract now if I were in charge. He has a full no-trade clause until the 2026-27 season, but his buyout isn’t terrible:
Again, the likelihood of this actually happening is slim to none, but if the Devils are willing to get creative to shed some space, they should probably consider this as an option.
Then there’s the health factor. Dillon’s neck/spine injury was frightening — watching him try to stand up on the ice only to be unable to and continue falling was sad to see, to say the least. Based on his end-of-season interview, it sounds like he’s “confident” in his ability to return to the team next campaign, but I have legitimate concerns that he was trying to say something into existence, considering the nature of the injury. Perhaps the Devils are able to put him on LTIR (though I wouldn’t put money on it) and alleviate themselves from that $4 million.
The overarching point here is that there are a ton of ways the Devils can get some cap off the books. The most likely scenario, in my opinion, is that Palat is bought out and Haula and his full contract are traded, without a sweetener. I’m certainly not omnipotent, though, and I wouldn’t be completely surprised if they had some tricks up their sleeves in New Jersey.
How sad it is that I can’t steer clear of contemplating how the Devils can shed cap space while listening to some of my favorite music to not think during a long drive. I guess there truly is no escape.
Sleep Token is metal for disney adults.
Anyway great article, only disagree with Mercer he's my special boy and if the Devils trade him I will collapse into a singularity and absorb the entire planet as a blackhole. Also in terms of trading Dougie I agree, but I think thats a mid-season trade. If its me looking to acquire him I want to see him bounce back fully first.
Great article