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1) There's been a lot of talk about the New Jersey Devils electing not to qualify Beau Bennett, Devante Smith-Pelly, Jon Merrill and, to a much lesser extent, Raman Hrabarenka.
I wouldn't be too concerned, though.
The Devils didn't just trade a 3rd round pick for Bennett only to let him walk away as a free agent before playing a game. They didn't trade a former 1st round pick in Stefan Matteau only to let DSP walk, either, especially after the way he finished the year in New Jersey. Was his scoring unsustainable? Absolutely, but he is still an NHL player and surely has a spot on next year's team.
I'm not very high on Merrill but the Devils seem to like him so I doubt they'd just walk away from him.
I expect all three will put pen to paper on new deals before July 1.
2) One guy the Devils should express interest in if he makes it to free agency is Brandon Pirri.
The 25-year-old was not qualified by Anaheim and it appears unlikely he'll be brought back.
He has dealt with some injury problems but in his career to date he has averaged 24 goals per 82 games. Considering it wouldn't cost much to sign Pirri, and the Devils are completely inept offensively, bringing him in seems like a no brainer.
He's a 50.4% possession player over the last three years, too, so he could make a positive impact in that regard as well.
3) When the Devils elected to hold onto David Schlemko at the deadline it seemed like a safe bet he'd re-sign. Fast forward a few months and he remains unsigned just a few days away from free agency. He said he'd prefer to stay in New Jersey, he wouldn't cost much to bring back and his underlying numbers were very good. I'm not sure how he hasn't been re-signed yet but, given it's gone on this long, I doubt he will.
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