New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are in the middle of a rebuild with a very young roster. Apart from P.K. Subban ($9 million) and Travis Zajac ($5.75 million), they don’t have anyone on their roster making more than $5 million annually.
For the Devils, it means that every player on the roster who is up for free agency this offseason, both restricted and nonrestricted, is on a very affordable deal. In fact, the only one of them getting paid more a million dollars this season is RFA Mirco Mueller.
As for UFAs, the Devils will have three of them. They are right-wing and center Kevin Rooney, left defenseman Fredrik Claesson, and right defenseman Dakota Mermis. Collectively, this sum of this group’s yearly salary is $2.1 million.
(All cap info capfriendly.com; all stats naturalstattrick.com or hockeydb.com).
Kevin Rooney
Rooney is likely the only one of the three UFAs who might be looking at a raise. He managed to play in 49 games this season for the Devils after finally making a full time jump to the NHL. Previously, he had been splitting time between the majors and minors.
Rooney averaged 11:44 minutes of playing time per game at the bottom of New Jersey’s lineup. By March he was receiving more shifts and a larger workload which suggests that he had earned the trust of his coach, Alain Nasreddine. Rooney recorded four goals in five assists over his campaign.
Fredrik Claesson and Dakota Mermis
Defensemen Claesson and Mermin didn’t see nearly as much ice time with the Devils. Claesson played in five games where he had a goal and an assist. Mermis played ten games with New Jersey and 53 for the Binghamton Devils.
In the NHL he had a goal and three assists and in the AHL he had three goals and 16 assists.