{"id":122542,"date":"2025-08-31T08:29:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T08:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/122542\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T08:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T08:29:47","slug":"this-is-how-the-new-jersey-devils-can-create-8-million-in-cap-space-without-a-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/122542\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how the New Jersey Devils can create $8 million in cap space without a trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you head to our friends at PuckPedia\u2019s website and click on the New Jersey Devils page<\/a>, in bold numbers, you\u2019ll see the team\u2019s available cap space. The Devils have a budget of $6.132 million to work with. That\u2019s a stressful number since the Devils are still trying to get Luke Hughes signed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Puck Pedia is using predicted depth charts, and the Devils can get really creative to make some cap space appear seemingly out of nowhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using their GM Mode tool, we experimented with the Devils’ roster to find cost-effective options. We didn\u2019t want to put Johnny Kovacevic on LTIR<\/a> yet, so the team can continue to accrue space to make an addition at the trade deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first move to make is to send Kurtis MacDermid to Utica<\/a>. That alone opens up more than $1 million in cap space. His entire contract can be buried according to the collective bargaining agreement, so the Devils should use that option.<\/p>\n

New Jersey Devils can create $8 million without making a trade. <\/p>\n

After that, things get a little hairy. Without burying any other obvious NHL contracts, the Devils will have roughly $9 million available outside the 20-person starting lineup. Most teams carry 23 players, but it\u2019s become common to short a team to fit under the daily cap. It\u2019s usually a short-term fix, but the Devils could play with fire and try a long-term option here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They could carry one of their backups at any position and still have $8ish million in cap space. Let\u2019s say they keep Juho Lammikko, since they gave him a one-way deal. He\u2019s making $800,000 against the cap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means the Devils send down Seamus Casey (or Simon Nemec if Casey beats him in training camp), Thomas Bordeleau, Nico Daws (if he passes through waivers), and Dennis Cholowski. This might impact the Comets\u2019 approved contract threshold, but that\u2019s something they can work out later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it. It\u2019s a risky proposition, and one injury to a defenseman knocks this down like a house of cards, but in that moment, you\u2019d put Kovacevic on LTIR and call up all the depth you might need. This really is just to get the Devils a little more time to make a trade. While not ideal, it\u2019s nice to know the Devils have options to make the money Luke Hughes wants work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you head to our friends at PuckPedia\u2019s website and click on the New Jersey Devils page, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-122542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}