Really good read regarding NJ's offseason:
On Markstrom, him and his agent had the Devils at/near the top of his list last season as we all figured:
“He basically picked New Jersey pretty early in the process and was fixated on New Jersey all last year,” Morris says. “It didn’t just come up at the trade deadline. There were behind-the-scenes, lengthy discussions in December, January and February.”
But it sounds like a deal was never really close:
“There were offers made back and forth, but nothing of substance to be quite honest,” Fitzgerald says. “We felt we made a really fair offer at the deadline — picks and prospects. I would say I really felt there was something in the works prior to that, but it didn’t happen.”
With Markström signed through 2025-26, the Flames didn’t have the same urgency to trade him as their pending unrestricted free agents. Hoping to leverage Markström’s strong first half of the season, Calgary seemed to want to get premium pieces back — perhaps Dawson Mercer — if it was going to accept a deal before the deadline.
The Devils didn’t offer enough to get the deal done. But Fitzgerald did put himself in position to make an offseason splash. He unloaded Vanecek’s cap hit ($3.4 million through 2024-25) at the deadline, trading him to the San Jose Sharks for Kaapo Kahkonen, whose contract would come off the books after the season. That opened cap space for the summer.
During the offseason, Fitz leveraged the fact that there were other goalie options and was adamant that there be salary retention. Calgary eventually was willing to make a deal for "less than they originally envisioned."
A few other quick blurbs. On Holtz:
“I was holding out hope that it would click with him,” Fitzgerald says. “We’re not in the hope business. We’ve accelerated the process. I don’t want to waste any more of our top players’ years away.”
On the Vegas trade overall:
“I know on paper what it looks like, but I’m trying to help build a team that can actually withstand the heavy teams in the league and play a different style — play any style, quite honestly,” he says.
Pesce:
Sure enough, in the hours after free agency opened July 1, Pesce agreed to a six-year contract with a $5.5 million cap hit. To help with their salary-cap situation, the Devils structured the deal in a way that made Pesce comfortable with a slightly lower average annual value than he perhaps could’ve gotten elsewhere. He has a no-trade clause for the first three years, plus a 15-team no-trade list for the final three. His camp also negotiated large signing bonuses early in the contract ($5 million in 2024-25 and $4 million in 2025-26 on top of a $2 million base salary both years) so he could get more money up front.
Dillon:
Dillon wanted a deal between two and four years for around the same AAV ($3.9 million) as his most recent contract. When his agent started talking with New Jersey about a three-year deal, the Devils offered around a $3.8 million AAV, and Dillon’s agent asked for around $4.25 million, the defenseman says. The two sides met between those numbers: Dillon signed for three years at a $4 million AAV.
Stamkos:
“I was in on the Steven Stamkos thing right until the end,” Fitzgerald says.
Heading into free agency, Fitzgerald got a call from Don Meehan, who represents Stamkos. The future Hall of Famer was headed to market, unable to come to terms with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stamkos had identified New Jersey as a team he could help, Fitzgerald remembers Meehan saying.
“Then you start looking at the pieces,” Fitzgerald says. “There was no way we could’ve done what he got, but we stayed in the fight.”
Ultimately, Stamkos signed a four-year, $8 million AAV deal with Nashville. The Devils, who currently have less than $6 million in cap space and still need to sign Mercer, a restricted free agent, would have had to make trades to come close to that. The chances of actually landing Stamkos were always slim, but for Fitzgerald, the fact he was interested felt good.
Though Fitzgerald would’ve made an exception for a player like Stamkos — “When you get that phone call, you’ve got to take it,” he says — he didn’t view adding skill to the top six as a priority. The Devils already have that with players like Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt.
Interestingly, there was no mention of Marchessault in the article despite him (seemingly) being linked to the Devils by some on Twitter before signing in Nashville.
Also make a solid porter and coffee stout as well.
