The first day of Free Agency Frenzy is often the most active. In the first hour alone there were 64 contracts handed out worth a total of over $700 million. Many more deals were given out in the afternoon. It is not that there are no decent options on July 2 and beyond, but the Frenzy is, well, a frenzy for a reason. A team has to make their moves quickly. The New Jersey Devils did exactly that. Within that first hour, the Devils signed defenseman Brett Pesce for six seasons with a $5.5 million cap hit and defenseman Brendan Dillon for three seasons with a $4 million cap hit. A little later in the afternoon, they brought back right winger Stefan Noesen for three seasons with a $2.75 million cap hit. The afternoon was rounded out by two signings more or less meant for Utica: center Mike Hardman and returning defenseman Colton White. The signings of Pesce, Dillon, and Noesen certainly help make the Devils a bigger, more defensive, and even physically tougher team. But are they actually better?

Before answering that question, allow me to touch on each of the three major signings. If nothing else, Tom Fitzgerald only overpaid a bit for each but nothing out of the ordinary for unrestricted free agents. From my standpoint, the overpayment is more in term than it is in dollars. Would it have been great if the soon-to-be-34 year old Dillon received two seasons at $4 million per season instead of three? Yes. Would it have been nice if Pesce’s contract was a year or two shorter? Sure. Likewise for Noesen? You bet. But this is part of the cost of doing business. At the least, Pesce’s and Dillon’s deals open up their clauses toward the end of their deals – as well as their salaries. (Aside: Clauses? Yes. Pesce has a full no trade clause that becomes modified in 2027-28. Dillon has a full no trade clause that becomes a 10-team no trade list in 2026-27.) Noesen is a flat $2.75 million per season. Still, the Devils are left with plenty of space – $6.7 million – to take care of their restricted free agents and maybe have room for one more notable signing.

Taking a step back, it was clear that General Manager Tom Fitzgerald felt his team needed to be beefier both in terms of mass and in terms of style of play. This has been reflected with his offseason moves prior to today. Fitzgerald made his Ryan Reeves signing in giving Kurtis MacDermid a raise and term. He moved Kevin Bahl out in part of the deal that brought Jakob Markstrom to New Jersey. Bahl’s replacement was effectively found in Jonathan Kovacevic. Acquired for a fourth round pick in 2026, the large defenseman throws plenty of hits and can be capable as a third-pairing defenseman. Then there was the infamous draft-day deal that dumped of Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid to Las Vegas for fourth-line winger Paul Cotter, who throws a lot of hits. Also at the 2024 NHL Draft, John Marino was sent to Utah for picks – which opened the door for the Pesce signing. (Not to mention that all of the draft picks were 6’2” or higher, led by 6’7” mammoth Anton Silayev.) With all of that in mind, the Devils signed the 6’3”, 200+ pound Pesce and added veteran hit-machine 6’4”, 225 pound Dillon. The 6’1”, 205 pound Noesen is almost an exception to this approach. Say what you want about the theme and whether Fitzgerald is overcompensating (yes), but Fitzgerald has been consistent with it.

The result is now a blueline where the smallest player is the 6’1” Simon Nemec and the lightest weight may be a competition between Nemec, Luke Hughes, and Nick DeSimone – all of whom are close to 200 as it is. They are indeed bigger. The bottom six now has Cotter and Noesen joining Curtis Lazar, Nathan Bastian, Nolan Foote, MacDermid, Erik Haula, and Ondrej Palat among other potential options from Utica. Again: the team is bigger and should expected to be much, much more physical than in the past. I understand that many of the People Who Matter and the media think that this was a need.

I remain skeptical of this. I will remind you, the Person Who Matters, that the Devils missed the playoffs by 10 points last season. Five wins, in other words. The Devils need to earn at least five more wins (and likely more) if they want to get back to the playoffs and not cause a massive upheaval of the front office. I have yet to see how throwing more hits or being called tough by an analyst or a color commentator equates to goals on the scoreboard and wins in the standings. I will remain unmoved about how much tougher the Devils are. I care a lot more about what wins games and having, say, Ken Daneyko very excited about big body presence is not it.

That said, I think the Devils have improved on paper compared to last season. I can see and agree that Pesce is an upgrade over Marino. He defends rushes aggressively and has been adept at taking care of passes to high danger areas on defense. Those are two things Marino did not do so well and can help the Devils quite a bit right away. If you need a big-minute eating defenseman and/or someone to play against tough competition, Pesce is your guy. It would have been cheaper to try to “fix” Marino to get him back to his 2022-23 form. It seems that management does not think that will work, so getting Pesce makes a lot of sense in this regard. I can see and agree that adding Dillon is a big upgrade over Bahl and Brendan Smith combined. Provided he stays out of the box, he will be a steady presence behind the likes of Dougie Hamilton and Pesce. Training camp will be more about figuring out pairings and even that can be sorted out in the season by Sheldon Keefe and his staff. I can see and agree that the Devils defense has become better in this respect.

I can also add that it has become more crowded. Re-signing Nick DeSimone and acquiring Kovacevic leaves the Devils with five right-shooting defensemen in New Jersey alone. This is not even considering Seamus Casey and (I’m stretching with this as an option) Mikael Diotte. I understand RHDs are usually in demand. They do not need this many. I fear the Devils are going to subject DeSimone to waivers and lose him. Not the worst scenario in the world but why re-sign a guy if the plan is to risk letting someone else take him for free?

Anyway, the defense is better on paper. Does it mean the Devils will give up fewer goals in 2024-25? That comes down to Jakob Markstrom and Jake Allen. Even with the improvements on defense, the pressure will be on them to perform. For the record, I like the actual trade for Markstrom. I may not think he is a long term answer. But given that the free agent class for goalies was whole lot of hopes and prayers, I can understand why he was made to be the guy. Let us hope Dave Rogalski does not undercut either.

What about the offense? As much as I think Noesen can be useful and I roll my eyes at Cotter and MacDermid getting minutes, the team still has two glaring holes up front. First: Who is the fourth line center? Cotter is listed as one but did not play the role with Las Vegas last season. Noesen is absolutely a winger as is Bastian. Lazar is preferred to be a winger as well. For all of the effort placed in adding bottom six players, I am confused that this part of the lineup was missed. No, calling up Justin Dowling or Shane Bowers does not work. We saw this for a hot minute last season and it lasted just about as long. There were many hoping for a Adam Henrique reunion. While he could play above a fourth line, he would fit the need at center. Alas, that ended this evening as he re-signed with Edmonton for two seasons. So would Jesper Boqvist but he’s not big so he does not fit the Fitzgerald theme; and, besides, Florida signed him this evening anyway.

Second: Where is the middle-six winger to help with scoring? Last season’s acquisition of Tyler Toffoli made sense for this. While Toffoli often showed his use when scoring and not much else when he was scoring, I am not missing him in particular. Shout out to Mike Grier for handing him one of the worst contracts of the day, by the way. I am missing who will help with scoring. Alex Holtz was dumped to Las Vegas so he will not get the opportunity. It would be asking a lot of the 31-year old Noesen to repeat his career year of production from last season. Which was still 14 goals and 37 points. I am not convinced that Ondrej Palat can help out much more than the 11 goals and 31 points he provided last season unless he returns to his Tampa Bay form. Cotter? He had 7 goals and 25 points last season. Curtis Lazar? He had 7 goals and 25 points last season too. Yes, Alex Holtz scored more goals than each of those players last season with 16 – and the Devils have not even replaced that.

It may be somewhat moot. A new head coach in Sheldon Keefe and a healthier season from Dougie Hamilton alone may make the power play be powerful for more than two months. That could make up the goals the Devils could have used more of last season. Likewise, healthier seasons from The Big Deal (who played through shoulder surgery but didn’t punch someone so he’s apparently not tough), Timo Meier, and Nico Hischier would help. A more consistent season, production-wise, from Dawson Mercer would help. Still, adding a middle-six scoring winger today would have made this roster more potent. That could be done, although I worry that Vladimir Tarasenko may be a sequel to the Toffoli Experience. No, Arseni Gritsyuk is not the answer; he is still signed with SKA St. Petersburg for this season.

All together, I think the Devils had a fine, good, but not great day. Adding a fourth line center would have filled in the one positional need remaining. Adding a scoring winger would have filled in the one roster need remaining. But it was far from a bad day or a failing day. The team’s defense should see a boost with whom they signed today. The main holes to fill were goaltender and head coach and Fitzgerald took care of both before the NHL Draft. As much as I do not think it matters much, they have a more Islanders like Identity of physical play and I know there are several of the People Who Matter who wanted that. In terms of the books, Fitzgerald still has space to take care of the remaining business with $6.78 million remaining per PuckPedia. That is a positive to be sure of.

What is that business? The restricted free agents to re-sign. On Sunday, June 30, the Devils qualified Dawson Mercer, Nolan Foote, Santeri Hatakka, Adam Beckman, and Nico Daws. All will receive NHL contracts. I would expect Hatakka, Beckman, Daws, and maybe even Foote end up in Utica. This means that the Devils have roughly $6.78 million to retain Mercer. I highly doubt Mercer will command all of that money. This means that Fitzgerald should have some space for call-ups and other moves to make before and during the season. As much as I expect the Devils to be a cap-ceiling team, there is such a thing as being too close. Keefe had to suffer playing with fewer than 18 players because Toronto did not have space to call someone up from the Marlies. Provided Fitzgerald does not make a late-night panic signing like Palat, it could be a calm Summer.

If there is one other aspect to consider, it is that this is the NHL and the moves made by Fitzgerald today are not done in a vacuum. As much as I think the Devils did well but not amazing today, it could have been a whole lot worse. Consider the following:

• Toffoli was given 4 x $6 million by San Jose, Elias Lindholm received 7 x $7.75 million by Boston, and Chandler Stephenson received 7 x $6.25 million from Seattle. Reminders that a lot of stupid money does get handed out on July 1.
• Anaheim did nothing but retain Urho Vaakanainen and Brett Leason to small seven figure deals. They are $6.7 million below the cap floor. I understand they are rebuilding but I wonder what huge deal they are going to eat to reach that one.
• Colorado has $337,500 of cap space and 17 players signed: 10 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders. The league minimum is $775,000. Everyone should be calling Joe Sakic for a trade.
• Los Angeles decided Warren Foegele was worth $10.5 million over three seasons ($3.5 million cap hit), and Joel Edmundson was worth $15.4 million over four seasons ($3.85 million cap hit).
• Dallas decided to make as many signings as they could. Most were not big deals but they signed Matt Dumba, Ilya Luybushkin, Matt Duchene, Nils Lundkvist, Casey DeSmith, Brendan Smith, Kole Lind, Kyle Capobianco, Sam Steel, and Cam Hughes. Thomas Harley, not just yet but at least there’s $4 million and change to play with. I still do not understand the need to sign Dumba, Luybushkin, and Smith.
• And the biggest loser of the day was easily the National Hockey League. The league announced that Stan Bowman, Al MacIsaac, and Joel Quenneville were allowed to seek employment in the NHL and could be hired as early as July 10. Bowman, MacIsaac, and Quenneville were suspended indefinitely for their roles in covering up a sexual abuser, with Quenneville going as far as to writing a positive evaluation of the abuser. I understand the NHL may not have had the grounds to survive a legal challenge. They should have tried anyway and dare Bowman, MacIsaac, and Quenneville anyway. With this decision, the harsh reality is that someone in this league/sport with the right connections can just sit out 2.5 years for looking the other way when a player was sexually assaulted and then return as if there was no issue. To be blunt, no one should hire any of these three. I repeat for Edmonton: You should not hire any of these three individuals. They should have remained blacklisted. And one cannot even claim the NHL tried to bury this as this came out hours after the initial frenzy. This was absolutely not missed among hockey media either. And it is not missed here in this summary.

As one final non-Devils related note, here is one that Fitzgerald and others should pay attention to. Montreal decided to give Juraj Slafkovsky a contract extension. An eight-season, $60.8 million extension. They are expecting Slafkovsky to grow from his 50-point sophomore season. I think he will. While they play different positions, it can be seen as a guidepost for one future extension. Defenseman Luke Hughes put up 47 points last season. Should Hughes repeat or exceed that, you can expect a similarly large extension being requested. And given. Do not be shocked if you see one for Luke Hughes sooner rather than later as he is entering the final season of his entry level contract.

As a final Devils-related point, I really would like the 2024-25 Devils to be better. Even if it is not how I would have done it, my opinion is just that. The Devils getting the results are more important than me being right. This team has to make the playoffs. The core is still in prime years – but those years are not coming back. If they do not, then Tom Fitzgerald and his staff cannot be in charge anymore. He is betting big on his theme of getting bigger and tougher whether he knows it or not. The defense should be better, but if the offense is not as potent as necessary and the goaltending struggles, then it will be another long season. I want a winning team. You want a winning team. We can only hope Fitzgerald gets it right this time.

This is ultimately my takeaways from the first day of free agency. There will be a few signings of note here and there, but the majority of the big names have been locked up. For the Devils, they can make a few minor deals, give Mercer his new deal, consider a Luke Hughes extension, and then prepare for camp. It has been a super-busy week between the Cup being awarded and today’s free agency period beginning. A little quiet would be nice right about now.

I want to thank Jared and Gerard for focusing on this free agency period as we did prospect profiles. I think it is a good mix to prepare for the offseason. I especially want to thank Jared for helping out with the posts about the Pesce and Noesen signings today. I thank everyone who behaved and participated in our open post for the first day of free agency. Please leave your thoughts about how the Devils did on July 1 in the comments. And, again and as always, I thank you for reading.