no fa with options have gone to NJ in a long ass time. star players would rather retire early then fullfill their contracts. players walkign soon as they get UFA status... you know the history of NJ for last bunch of seasons. Have fun with hall walking in 2 years!
What history of NJ the "last bunch of seasons"? Kovalchuk left 5 years ago - what other big name players have left since? Devils haven't had many great players (thus last season was the first back in the playoffs since 2012), but the top players that they did have that were approaching UFA status all stayed with the club (Schneider, Greene & Zajac).
No big UFA's have come here in that time, but when you're rebuilding why is that really a priority? Yeah, we missed out on Shattenkirk last season, but he was dead set on playing for the Rangers. Not much you can do there. Fortunately, Will Butcher was a rather sweet consolation prize that likely doesn't happen if they land Shattenkirk. I'm sure NJ would've been in on Tavares if that was a possibility, but sounds like it was NYI or TOR. Would've been nice to keep Maroon, but he took significantly less on a one-year deal to be with his family in St. Louis. Who else are we missing out on? Shero is not going to spend just to spend - the cap space will be extremely valuable in hopefully resigning Johansson this offseason, and new contracts for Hall, Vantanen and Nico the following offseason while still having room to add in free agency as NJ's contender window is opening.
Nice try though. Enjoy the rebuild and watching Lundqvist go down as one of the greatest goaltenders to never win a Cup. Have to think he surpasses Cujo, right? 3 more years at $8.5M per - will be fun to see if they ride that contract out and hurt their draft chances in the process or pay someone to be able to unload that cap hit? Have to think they'd like to get one of the younger guys that will still be around once the team is good again into the nets sometime soon, right? Nice that Shattenkirk will also be around for those 3 years as well.