New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald made a big splash on the first day of free agency and the Devils are finally spending money!

1. Dougie Hamilton: What can I say? He is the best UFA defenseman on the market and it was described as a grind to get him to sign. With the earlier acquisition of Ryan Graves, this signing changes the dynamics of the Devils blueline. Go big or go home. This revamped Devils blueline has some serious size with offensive upside. Some would argue that the Devils overpaid and the back nine of his contract maybe harder to swallow four years from now. I say nonsense and when Luke Hughes cracks the Devils lineup a couple years down the road, you want someone like Dougie Hamilton on your team. Great signing and sends a message to the league that the Devils are back in business to win and ownership group has truly given Fitzy the green light.

2. Jonathan Bernier: This move is a do-over from last season when Fitzy signed Corey Crawford to be the 1a and 1b tandem with young goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. That didn’t work out and Blackwood had to shoulder the workload and actually played pretty well before getting derailed with Covid. Mack Black had a tough time coming back and struggled at times but finished the season relatively strong. Bernier will challenge for playing time and take some of the grueling workload off of Mackenzie. Having Mack Black, Bern Baby Bern, and the Wedgewall in front of the net gives the Devils some depth at the goaltender position, at a reasonable price.

3. Zach Parise There was definitely some confusion on that now deleted tweet yesterday. As of now, Parise has not signed with the Islanders. I am expecting he will but Devils fans know all to well how long it takes for him to make up his mind.

4. Will Butcher traded to the Buffalo Sabres and a 2022 5th round pick for “future consideration”. This is a good salary dump for the Devils and I wished it worked out for Butcher. He was a good soldier. As of now, the Devils still have some major salary cap space to make more moves. Saad perhaps?

Recapping Day One of Free Agency On My Podcast




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Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.

You can follow Sam on Twitter: @PrimetimeSamWoo

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