Talking free agency

Notes on the Devils' pending UFAs and a potential free agent who might catch their eye.

Follow along on Twitter @ToddCordell | @InfernalAccess

Be sure to join the Discord channel to talk hockey, and everything else, with our writers and subscribers.

---

Free agency is just around the corner, with the ‘frenzy’ set to begin in a little more than three weeks.

I don’t think this year’s free agency period will be as exciting as some in year’s past. With a lack of big names – and a strong core already in place – the Devils won’t be signing any Dougie Hamiltons (or Ondrej Palats).

It’ll be more about who they lose than who they bring in, although I expect the Devils to do some shopping.

With the help of Chris Johnston, and his Free Agent Big Board, I wanted to comb through some names and share my take on how things may play out.

We’ll start with the Devils’ UFAs and work our way to outside names.

Damon Severson

Severson is No. 1 on Johnston’s board and understandably so. He has produced better than 40 points per 82 games over the past couple of seasons. He can play power play, he can play penalty kill, and he can reliably log well over 20 minutes a night. Nobody else on the open market can say all of that.

While Severson is a little too prone to head scratching mistakes, the good far outweighs the bad – and he’s going to be paid accordingly.

Excerpt from Johnston’s big board:

It wouldn’t be surprising to see him receive a contract in the $6-million range with term on the open market. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a right shot, either, because there are a lot of teams with that specific need to fill on their blue line.

I have stressed for weeks, if not months, that Severson is a goner in New Jersey. They simply can’t – and shouldn’t – match what Severson will command on the open market when they already have extreme resources invested into right-side defenders like Dougie Hamilton, John Marino, and Simon Nemec.

Ryan Graves

Graves is another guy who is pricing himself out of the organization. I do think the Devils like Graves in a vacuum. I don’t think they like him enough to pay the going rate, which will likely be far above his actual value.