Report: New Jersey Devils unlikely to qualify Cody Glass

A qualifying offer would have come with a $2.5 million price tag attached, which is a lot to pay for what Glass brings.

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Center was already a position of need for the New Jersey Devils heading into the off-season.

It’s an even bigger point of emphasis for Tom Fitzgerald and Devils management with the team opting not to qualify restricted free agent Cody Glass.

The Devils currently lack anything close to a passable 3C, let alone a good one. That’s something they very much need behind Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier.

Hughes has missed at least 20 games in three of the last four seasons and 77 games in aggregate. Put another way, he’s been unavailable nearly a quarter of the time in that span.

Hischier’s track record of staying healthy is much better – especially of late – but he’s missed 10+ games in five of the last seven seasons.

Those injury histories have to be a consideration. Beyond that, the Florida Panthers have shown just how valuable it is to have a legitimate difference-maker centering the 3rd line.

Anton Lundell produced 17+ points in back-to-back playoff runs, tallying 35 points over 47 games in total. That’s a 61-point pace over 82 games – remarkable for a 3rd line player seeing zero ice time on the top power play.

Even if the Devils keep Glass, they’d still have nobody in the organization capable of providing close to those outputs in the 3C spot.