It is hard to find silver linings when you are about to miss out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight season and fourth in five years, but the Devils should be optimistic about this offseason.
The Devils are setting themselves up for a top 10 draft pick and eight players on the roster are slated to become unrestricted free agents. Let's take a look at who should stay and who should go.
Who Should Stay
Scott Gomez
With a goal last Tuesday night, Gomez passed Scott Niedermayer for fourth on the Devils all-time points list. The Alaska native has rejuvenated his career with the Devils in his second go-round with the team. His 27 points are fourth on the team despite not joining the team until December.
His 12 powerplay points are two behind Adam Henrique for the team lead and his 46.5 faceoff percentage is one of the best on the team.
If Gomez had played a full season with the team, he potentially would have eclipsed the 50-point plateau and his salary for this season was $550K. He needs to come back.
Jordin Tootoo
What a great season it has been for Tootoo. After coming onto the team as a tryout, he has become a fan favorite and has played his way onto the top line. His eight goals are sixth-best on the team and he brings that gritty element that not many other players on the team have.
He leads the team with eight fighting majors and is a regular spark to a lineup that needs one more often than not.
His minutes have essentially doubled since the start of the season and, like Gomez, his $550K salary is too appealing to let him go after this season.
Steve Bernier
Bernier is another player who has posted his highest numbers in a long time. His 24 points are the most he has had as a Devil and the most since 2009. The former San Jose first round pick also has found a spot on the powerplay, where he spends an average of 1:16 per game.
Of the three players so far, Bernier is the most expensive at $600K, and to bring him back will not cost much more than that. For a very serviceable fourth line player, who has enjoyed success on the powerplay, it should be an easy decision to bring him back.
By the way, Bernier has two more points than Travis Zajac, who will make $6.5 million next season.
Mark Fraser
He is not going to be a top pairing defenseman any time soon, but he is as good a depth defenseman as the Devils have. Fraser is also one of the most physical defensemen on the team with five fighting majors while delivering close to 2.5 hits per game.
His +2 rating is tied for sixth-best on the team and had a career-best +18 two years ago with Toronto.
Fraser's salary is also $550K. Give him another contract next year.
Peter Harrold
Many Devils fans might not like to see Harrold come back, but he is the kind of player Lou Lamoriello loves to keep around. He's a depth defenseman who can jump up to a wing position if need be. His numbers are not astounding, but he is a nice player to absorb that fill-in role if any other defensemen get injured.
At $800K, his salary is worth keeping as a seventh defenseman.
His -11 rating is scary, but Patrik Elias is a -14. A one-year re-up with Harrold would not be the worst thing.
Who Should Go
Bryce Salvador
Injuries have kept the captain out of the lineup since Nov. 10. In fact, injuries have prevented Salvador from playing a full season for the last three years. With the Devils young guns on the blue line slowly showing some improvement, there is no need for the 39-year-old anymore.
He earned $3.25 million this year and once the offseason rolls around, that is money that should be used in acquiring a proven goal scorer.
Salvador has been a Devil since the 2007-2008 season and Devils fans should remember him more for his postseason heroics during the Devils' run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012 than his tenure as captain. It's time for him and the Devils to move on.
Michael Ryder
This was a disastrous two-year marriage. The Devils frankly never gave Ryder a chance to become the 30-goal scorer he once was. On the other hand, Ryder expected the Devils to cater to his every whim and that does not fly under the Lamoriello regime.
He scored 18 goals and 34 points for the Devils last year, but this year things went south real fast.
Ryder was a player the Devils would've been wise to trade at the trade deadline, but because they decided to sit Ryder as a healthy scratch in the weeks leading up to the deadline, nobody was willing to trade for the 34-year-old.
Ryder has played in just three games since the All Star break and the Devils have shown they would rather keep Dainius Zubrus, who just snapped a 49-game goalless drought last Tuesday night in Minnesota, and Peter Harrold, a defenseman, in the lineup over him.
There is no way Ryder wants to come back and the feeling is most likely mutual.
Martin Havlat
Seven times in his career Havlat has topped 50 points in a season, the last time coming in 2011. The Devils were not deterred and figured he would return to his former self regardless of the fact that he was bought out by the Sharks and hadn't played more than 50 games in a season since then.
Now, Havlat is stuck in the same situation as Ryder, a healthy scratch, although Havlat has played in nine games since the All Star break.
In all honesty, this signing too has turned out to be a disaster. Despite having just five goals, Havlat is a -12 on the season and never really found a niche on this roster.
Dainius Zubrus
Believe it or not, Zubrus has been a Devil for eight years. Unlike everyone on this list, Zubrus is not set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, but at $3.1 million, his contract is too much for a guy who has scored just three goals all season.
In his last 22 games, Zubrus has gone without a shot in 13 of them, which is the worst on the team in that span. His 6'5" 225 lb. frame is useful, but that's pretty much all he has been to the Devils this year.
Whether the Devils buy him out, or try to trade him, the two need to part ways unless he can finish the season strong.
Tuomo Ruutu
Like Zubrus, Ruutu is not an unrestricted free agent but his mammoth $5 million salary, and $3.8 million cap hit, surely gives Lamoriello nightmares.
He was brought to the Devils in a trade for Andrei Loktionov because Lamoriello believed Ruutu was a goal scorer. The problem is that Ruutu has only reached 20 goals twice in his 11-year career, doing it for the last time in 2009.
Ruutu has fallen down onto the fourth line with Jacob Josefson and Harrold. Through 63 games this season, Ruutu averages 11:00 per night and a lowly 0:07 on the powerplay and 0:17 on the penalty kill.
It's just way too much money tied into a player who has done less than some of his teammates that are making around 1/10 of his salary.
Although trading Ruutu would be extremely difficult unless the Devils want to chew up a good portion of that salary, there are cheaper options available.
The Devils are a team that is lining up to have quite an offseason and some tough decisions are going to be made to try and get this team back into playoff contention.
If things go worse for this team in the offseason, look for Lamoriello's job to be in danger. After all, it was Lamoriello's inability to put his team through a rebuild that pretty much cost them a very good chance at McDavid or Jack Eichel.