Who stays, who goes?

The New Jersey Devils have six pending UFAs and two RFAs. Who will be back?

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Tom Fitzgerald has a lot of decisions to make this off-season. While deciding on a new head coach, which starting goaltender to acquire, and what to do with an unexpected top-10 pick certainly rank atop the list, he also has to figure out what he wants to do with the team’s pending free agents.

The Devils have eight such players (six UFAs, two RFAs) to deal with this year. Let’s take a closer look at each case and what Fitzgerald may opt to do.

UFA - Tomas Nosek

If you had asked me what would happen with Nosek in February, I’d have called him a goner without thinking twice.

At that point, he had missed a ton of time due to injury and was largely ineffective when he did play.

He didn’t score his first goal of the season until the middle of March and simply couldn’t find a role on the team.

More opportunities opened up for Nosek down the stretch. He logged 10+ minutes in 15 straight games to end the season, spending plenty of time centering the 3rd line.

Although his on-ice numbers were not great, only five Devils had more points than Nosek over the final 15 games of the season. He also fared extremely well in the faceoff dot, winning over 56% of his draws.

I don’t know that he’ll be extended but his play down the stretch gave him a much better chance of sticking around. I could see Fitzgerald wanting the insurance down the middle.

UFA - Chris Tierney

The Devils had 22 players log at least 200 minutes of 5v5 play in 2023-24. They generated shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances, and expected goals at a lesser rate with Tierney on the ice than anybody else.

While his defensive metrics were quite solid, he was just such a zero offensively that his net impact was still negative.

A case could be made for keeping Tierney as a 13/14th forward given his faceoff prowess and penalty-killing ability.

Ultimately, I think the Devils will decide they want more pace, and #juice, from the 4th line and walk away from Tierney; especially if Nosek gets a new deal.

RFA - Dawson Mercer

Anyone and everyone who follows the Devils will tell you Mercer was a disappointment this past season.

He still scored as many 5v5 goals as Tage Thompson, Connor Bedard, Jesper Bratt, Cole Caufield, and Mitch Marner despite spending the vast majority of his ice away from Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier.

Mercer plays hard, he does not hesitate to go to the dirty areas of the ice, and he has shown he can give you 1st line production at 5v5 (when with one of the star centers) even though he’s not necessarily a 1st line player.

I think the Devils like a lot of the elements he brings to the table and will opt to re-sign him (perhaps for the long haul) at a cheaper price than would’ve been thought a year ago.

Mercer would no doubt draw plenty of interest on the trade market but likely from teams trying to vulture a good player at a low point value-wise.

I’d be very surprised if he isn’t a Devil come October.

RFA - Nolan Foote