The Devils are Getting Tremendous Value from Their Players

The New Jersey Devils are getting tens of millions of dollars worth of extra on-ice production and value from their roster.

Dom Luszczyszyn and Shayna Goldman of The Athletic recently came out with a player card system. This system, among other things, placed a market value on players based on their performance. Some players outperformed their salary and some didn’t.

The Devils are a team that has many players outperforming their salaries. Among the 16 players currently on the Devils roster who had such cards, 14 of them are outperforming their salaries. This is also before Luke Hughes and Akira Schmid had cards made for them because of their lack of playing time.

All of the Devils’ core forwards, Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier are outperforming their contracts. Dawson Mercer and Tyler Toffoli are also outperforming theirs.

The core four

Jack Hughes has a market value of $13.9 million according to this model. His contract is only $8 million a year, so he’s generating $5.9 million extra dollars of production. Nico Hischier has a market value of $13 million and is only making $7.25 million. Hischier is generating $5.75 million worth of extra production. Combined, the Devils’ top center duo is one of the most valuable duos in the league and it’s a huge reason why they’re winning.

Alongside those two are Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. Meier, according to this model, is worth $10.7 million a year and he’s only getting paid $8.8 million a year. Bratt is worth $9.3 million and he’s getting $7.875 million a year.

Getting value like that, long-term, out of a core group of young forwards is another testament to the job Tom Fitzgerald has done in building this team.

Depth up front

The Devils are also getting great value from their other forwards.

Dawson Mercer, who in all fairness is still on his rookie deal, has a value of $7.7 million. He’s outproducing his $900 thousand salary by $6.8 million. Tyler Toffoli has a value of $11.2 million as opposed to his $4.25 million cap hit.

Erik Haula, Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian are also outperforming their cap hits.

The only financial blemish on the entire forward group is Ondrej Palat, who’s currently underperforming his $6 million cap hit with only $5.6 million in value.

The back end

It’s not just the forwards who are generating this type of value. Every current member of the Devils’ defense who had a 2022-23 player card has a contract that’s cheaper than their value.

Dougie Hamilton has the largest contract on the Devils as of right now at $9 million. His value, according to this model, is $14.8 million. Despite having the largest contract on the team, Hamilton is still outproducing his contract.

Jonas Siegenthaler, Hamilton’s partner, generated $8.2 million worth of production, his contract is only $3.4 million a year. John Marino has a value of $6.7 million, his contract is only $4.4 million a year. New acquisition Colin Miller has a value of $8.3 million and his contract is only $1.9 million a year. Even Brendan Smith is outperforming his salary of $1.1 million by generating $3.7 million in value.

This is also before Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec and Kevin Bahl get evaluations of their own from this model.

Winning in a hard-cap league

Getting value like that out of most players on the roster, top to bottom, is how to win in a hard-cap league like the NHL.

Teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs end up in yearly cap crunches that hinder their chances of winning. A lot of teams have fallen into the free agency trap and have gotten burnt repeatedly. The great leaguewide spending spree of 2016 is a great example of this because nearly every big splash ended up being an albatross.

The fact that Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is able to recognize this is another testament to how he’s built this team. The Devils roster is currently generating $55 and a half million in extra on-ice value. This isn’t to say that this model is 100% correct or realistic, given that Colin Miller would probably never get $8.3 million per year on the open market.

Nonetheless, the New Jersey Devils are playing hockey’s version of moneyball.

Stay tuned for more New Jersey Devils and NHL content, including trades, signings, and various updates.

Featured image courtesy of NHL.com

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