Prior to Monday’s 5pm Eastern deadline, the New Jersey Devils tendered qualifying offers to six pending restricted free agents. Those players are forwards Arseny Gritsyuk, Amadeus Lombardi, and Xavier Parent, defenseman Topias Vilen, and goaltenders Nico Daws and Jakub Malek. As a result, the Devils will continue to control their NHL rights as we enter the free agency period.
Four players did not receive a qualifying offer. Those players were forwards Paul Cotter and Dylan Wendt, defenseman Calen Addison, and goaltender Tyler Brennan. They will become unrestricted free agents on Wednesday, July 1st unless the Devils come to agreement on a new contract with any of them prior to then.
Looking at those lists, the most surprising bit of news for the Devils may be their decision not to tender a contract to Cotter. And we’ll get to him in a moment. But let’s start with the players they did opt to qualify.
Arseny Gritsyuk is the highest-profile RFA the Devils have this offseason following the trade of Simon Nemec to Calgary. Devils GM Sunny Mehta mentioned during a recent Town Hall with season ticket holders that, in regards to a new contract for Gritsyuk, he was encouraged by developments on that front. Devils beat reporter James Nichols went as far as to say “his contract should be wrapped up soon“. It remains to be seen if said deal will be done as early as this week, as unrestricted free agency will take immediate priority over a pending RFA come Wednesday, but make no mistake. Gritsyuk is a player the Devils would like to keep moving forward.
Lombardi is one of the newest members of the Devils, coming over in a trade last week from the Detroit Red Wings. He has yet to make his NHL debut, but it shouldn’t be surprising that Mehta qualified him after trading a fourth round pick to acquire him. It remains to be seen what he could be at the NHL level, but its safe to assume he’s going to get an opportunity to make the Devils roster.
Daws and Malek were the primary goaltenders at Utica this past season. Daws may still yet earn an NHL role for himself if Mehta is able to move the two years and $6M AAV on Jacob Markstrom’s deal. If nothing else, the qualifying offers ensure that the Devils will continue to control the NHL rights of both goaltenders. Malek will almost certainly be back in Utica as he continues his development, and Daws may very well be there as well once again this upcoming season.
Xavier Parent and Topias Vilen both earned a cup of coffee with the Devils during the 2025-26 season. Someone like James who is more familiar with the day-to-day workings of Utica would be better qualified than me to discuss how both players fared this season, but they appear to be on the shortlist for NHL call ups when the Devils need a healthy body to dress for a game. Keeping them in the organization is fine, although with new AGM Braden Birch overseeing operations in Utica moving forward, I would expect an overhaul of how the Devils operate at the AHL level.
This brings us to the players that the Devils didn’t qualify, and with all due respect to Calen Addison, Tyler Brennan, and Dylan Wendt, the most notable name on this list is Paul Cotter.
Cotter came to the Devils two seasons ago (along with a 3rd round pick used on Mason Moe) in the deal that sent Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid to the Vegas Golden Knights. Two years later, that deal is shaping up to be one that hasn’t really helped either side all that much. Holtz cleared waivers and was sent down to the AHL this past season, and the Knights just traded Schmid to the Florida Panthers for a future third round pick.
Cotter wound up scoring 25 goals and 12 assists over 158 games with the Devils in two seasons while also being a physical presence on the Devils fourth line. On the surface, those stats aren’t terrible for a fourth line winger. But a deeper look at the underlying numbers tells the story of a player who was frequently exposed as a defensive liability when he was on the ice. No NHL player had a worse 5v5 goal share than Cotter this season.
Cotter’s qualifying offer was set to be $850,000, but as the fellas at Devils Insiders point out, it’s not so much about that number as it is the fact that Cotter was arbitration eligible. Cotter had enough counting stats where he was likely to get a decent raise on his next contract. AFP Analytics was projecting as high as three years and $2.325M AAV, while ScotiaStat had him at two years and $1.287M AAV. I’m not sure what Cotter’s number was going to come in at, but I can understand Mehta not wanting to bother with arbitration for a flawed player that he may or may not even want on the roster going forward in the first place. I can appreciate that Cotter is the modern-day Jacob Josefson in that he’s great in the shootout and literally nothing else, but that’s not enough of a reason to justify giving him a raise and a spot on the roster moving forward, particularly when cap dollars are at a premium.
Now, is it possible that Sunny Mehta likes what Cotter brings to the table and wants to bring him (or the other non-tendered players) back at a lower salary. Never say never. Three years ago, the Devils didn’t qualify Michael McLeod or Nathan Bastian, but wound up bringing back both players. But they also didn’t qualify Jesper Boqvist and let him hit the open market. I’m not pointing that out to relitigate the decision-making or thought process by then-GM Tom Fitzgerald. I’m saying that to simply show it’s a possibility.
With that said, there’s no shortage of fourth liners who will be on the open market as of Wednesday. Many of them have a connection to Sunny Mehta, whether it’s Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenlund, Noah Gregor, Nick Cousins, or the recently non-qualified Cole Schwindt, just to name a few. There’s also several fourth liners who at one time or another played for Sheldon Keefe in Toronto, such as Calle Jarnkrok. The Devils also have some internal candidates for a potential fourth line role, such as Lenni Hameenaho, Shane Lachance or Matyas Melovsky. Or maybe Mehta has someone in mind who we’re not thinking of. Either way, it doesn’t really make a ton of sense for the Devils to pay Cotter well north of $1M when you can get someone for the veteran’s minimum of $850,000. When you’re as tight against the cap ceiling as the Devils currently are, saving a few hundred thousand dollars here or there on the margins shouldn’t be overlooked.
I suppose its possible that Cotter addresses the flaws in his game where he’s no longer a defensive liability and can go on to have a respectable career as a fourth-line grinder. But I don’t blame Mehta for wanting to make a change, and if I had to guess, Cotter will be playing elsewhere in 2026-27. I don’t see the Devils bringing him back at a smaller number. The Devils might miss what he does in the shootout, but I don’t know that they’re going to miss everything else Cotter does or doesn’t do. Maybe his DJ’ing skills, but that’s about it.
