One of the many questions awaiting to be dealt with now besides naming a full-time GM, a full-time coach and assistant coaches is a major priority for Devils owner Joshua Harris of Apollo Global Management to make the biggest sports hires in his hockey life. This will be an important time for Joshua to fold and interview people off the philosophical, strategic and overall structuring of this organization evolving into a powerhouse and Stanley Cup winner.
That next big question we are mainly going to focus on is the future of Devils goalie Cory Schneider. The Marblehead, Massachusetts native has seen his player stock plummet worse than fans really expected when Lou Lamoriello traded that ninth overall pick in 2013 to the Vancouver Canucks that became Bo Horvat.
Most Devils fans are pondering “what are we going to do with Schneider?” On opening night, seeing Schneider get “cramps” in the middle of the second period was very hard to fathom against Winnipeg at Prudential Centre. Then in the middle of the year, Schneider was hurt with a lower-body injury. As a result, he didn’t have the lower body movement to help him improve his angles at the NHL level. However, he did seem to refine his game down in Binghamton with Mark Dennehey as his head coach.
With Schneider winning some games back up in New Jersey before the season went on pause, it seems that Tom Fitzgerald can take the easy way by buying out Schneider. Buying out Cory Schneider would be cutting your losses for the next few seasons and saving the Devils some costs on their payroll of around $4 million per season, per CapFriendly. Using that extra $4 million on CapFriendly, I utilized that towards giving Robin Lehner $5.8 million per year.
The next thing is you can do with Schneider is expose him to the Seattle expansion draft and hope they take him. However, I do prefer trading him with a mid-level goalie prospect and a few draft picks to salvage some of your losses that Lou Lamoriello overpaid for in 2013 for the ninth overall pick.
With the future in mind, the cap could be at $84-$86 million, all depending on the circumstances of the inflator and escrow players that will be the key factors for the upcoming 2020-2021 season. So this range would help GM’s find ways to reallocate salary, however, they think it will be used in a productive manner.
If Tom Fitzgerald is indeed the full time GM in New Jersey, I expect him to be a bit more aggressive in the addressing of the goalie situation and not being too conservative like his predecessor Ray Shero in not getting a few solid free agents before last summer. That could’ve helped the team out a bit to grow the young kids who they continue to add.