Today is the day. In 3 hours, it will be the time. NHL teams will then be able to offer contracts to unrestricted free agents out on the open market, and players will be able to sign said contracts. Big decisions will culminate in a process that seems like it will only take minutes.
Yesterday, I explained why I felt it will be a quiet day for the Devils and a quiet offseason, since most of what they have to do is re-sign RFAs, absolutely fill in one roster spot, and get a head coach. All that we've known for quite some time. It serves as a summary of the team's situation as well. Just to reiterate, per CapGeek (who now sells "salary caps") the Devils currently have 17 players signed with $12,122,500 of cap space to fill in at least one forward spot, one defenseman spot, and one goaltender spot. Given that the Devils qualified most of their restricted free agents, will likely strike up a deal with Zach Parise prior to arbitration, and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond is now on a one-way contract (I think he should/will be in Albany for the season), the only position that absolutely must get filled is backup goaltender.
Like last summer, this will be an open thread for all NHL Free Agency discussion. Talk about what other teams are doing, talk about what you want to see from the Devils, talk about trades, talk about how you feel about pending FAs from NJ and other teams, and pretty much anything else as long as it's about NHL free agency. Please follow the rules at all times, and please, please, please do not report rumors as news or fake news. Link to sources (actually link to them, don't just dump the URL in the text box and hit post - this includes Tweets, use the timestamp on a Tweet to link to it); give credit to sources; and actually listen to good, reliable people (e.g. Gulitti, Chere, anyone at TSN or CBC, CapGeek. Not Hockeybuzz or some incarcerated dude on Twitter). This gives respect to the sources and let's everyone who's reading this know what's really going on from people who actually know what's going on.
One final note: Remember that we only know so much of the story. UFAs have free reign to decide where they want to go and for how much. We don't know and likely never will know whether a GM made an offer, how much it was, and whether the player ever wanted to stay with that club. Players will want to maximize their value or make some other life change as they may not get the chance to do it again and/or fulfill a desire to play elsewhere. Just some perspective if someone "walks" or signs to a place you didn't expect. Thanks for reading and enjoy the frenzy. We will do our best to stay on top of the Devils-related FA news throughout the day.