The pace of New Jersey Devils transactions has not slowed since General Manager Sunny Mehta spent the first three days of July completing the Hischier extension, the Hayton offer sheet, the Florida trade, the Gritsyuk re-signing, the Lombardi signing, the Rittich addition, and the Daws re-up. In the days since, the organizational business has continued on multiple tracks simultaneously: formal contracts for players recently acquired, the ongoing uncertainty around the Barrett Hayton offer sheet deadline, the finalization of Simon Nemec’s future in Calgary, and the emergence of Dylan Larkin’s trade request as a storyline worth monitoring — though the current state of that situation is considerably more complicated than the headline suggests.
The cleanest transactions of the past 48 hours are the Steeves and Malek signings, both of which were announced on Monday and both of which complete the organizational accounting for recently moved pieces. Ben Steeves, the 24-year-old forward acquired from Florida in the Markstrom trade, has signed a one-year, two-way contract worth $850,000 at the NHL level. Steeves produced 45 points in Charlotte’s AHL system last season — 23 goals and 22 assists — and his 62-goal, 45-goal production across two collegiate seasons at Minnesota-Duluth marked him as a finisher capable of projecting to the NHL level. The two-way structure of the contract places him in competition for a roster spot against the field at training camp without creating a significant cap obligation if he spends time in Utica, which is the appropriate risk-calibrated structure for a player who has not yet appeared in an NHL regular-season game. Jakub Malek, the 24-year-old goaltender who has been developing in the Devils’ system after being selected in the 2020 draft, has signed a two-year contract following his most substantive development season to date — a campaign split between Utica and the Adirondack AHL affiliate that gave him more professional starts than he had previously accumulated. The Malek extension fits the three-goaltender structure that Mehta has built behind Jake Allen: Allen as the clear starter, Nico Daws as the developmental prospect competing for backup time, David Rittich as the experienced insurance option with a track record that compares favorably analytically to what Markstrom was doing, and Malek continuing to develop in Utica toward a future NHL opportunity.
Simon Nemec’s departure, formalized this week when the Calgary Flames announced the young defenseman’s five-year, $36.25 million contract, closes the book on what Mehta characterized at the time of the trade as a package of draft capital that was simply too good to pass up. The $7.25 million average annual value of Nemec’s Calgary contract — signed by the 22-year-old Slovenian defenseman who was drafted second overall by the Devils in 2022 and who has been developing in their system since — provides the most direct evidence of what the Devils gave up in exchange for the pick package that Calvin Pickard and the other draft considerations represented. Whether that trade proves to have been the right decision for the organization will be evaluated across multiple draft cycles rather than in the immediate term, but the Nemec contract number gives the eventual assessment its proper reference point. Jacob Markstrom’s transition to Florida, meanwhile, generated the kind of human-interest social media moment that accompanies any major player trade: his wife’s Instagram photographs showing Markstrom and his son already wearing Panthers gear surfaced Monday and circulated through Devils fan communities, the specific combination of father-son bonding and new organization gear serving as the visual confirmation of a trade that the press release had already announced.
The Barrett Hayton offer sheet deadline is Thursday, July 9, and the Utah Mammoth have not yet publicly confirmed whether they will match New Jersey’s one-year, $4.775 million tender. The most recent reporting on Utah’s internal deliberations suggests that the organization is actively evaluating the decision rather than having made it, which means the outcome remains genuinely uncertain as of Tuesday. The case for matching is straightforward: Hayton is 26, was the fifth overall pick in 2018, and has played significant two-way minutes for the franchise that has been building since the Arizona relocation. The case for not matching has been strengthened by Utah’s own offseason moves — signing Anders Lee and acquiring Vincent Trocheck on July 1 — which have reduced Hayton’s likely role from significant to depth, making the one-year no-trade restriction that would accompany a matched offer sheet a constraint that limits the organization’s flexibility while keeping a player whose path to meaningful ice time has narrowed. Either outcome is defensible from a franchise management perspective, and either outcome is workable for the Devils: if Utah declines, New Jersey receives a two-way center with a track record of penalty-killing and defensive reliability at the cost of a 2027 second-round pick; if Utah matches, the Devils retain that second-round pick and continue building depth through other avenues.
Dylan Larkin’s trade request is the storyline from the broader NHL offseason that has been most consistently linked to New Jersey in recent reporting, and the current state of that situation warrants some precision rather than simply accepting the framing that the Devils have emerged as a top landing spot. Larkin, who has spent eleven seasons in Detroit, requested a trade from the Red Wings in early June after a franchise career that included one playoff series appearance. Detroit General Manager Steve Yzerman has confirmed the trade request and stated publicly that he will not move Larkin without receiving an appropriate return — he has specifically been described as wanting at least one first-round pick and a roster-quality young player, the kind of package that reflects what a 30-goal center under contract at $8.7 million for five remaining seasons actually commands on the trade market.
The complicating factor is Larkin’s full no-trade clause, which gives him the right to approve any destination, and the fact that his preferred destination list — confirmed as of the most recent reporting by Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press — consists of three teams: the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, and Vegas Golden Knights. Larkin has been asked by Yzerman to expand that list to improve the likelihood of a deal getting done, and the reporting as of this week suggests he has declined to do so. Absent a list expansion that includes the Devils, New Jersey cannot acquire Larkin regardless of what asset package Mehta might be willing to assemble. The question of whether Larkin widens his approved destinations — and whether New Jersey would be on the expanded list if he does — is genuinely unresolved, and the analyst consensus following the most current reporting is that Larkin is increasingly likely to begin the 2026-27 season still wearing a Red Wings jersey if his list does not expand and if the three approved destinations cannot meet Yzerman’s return requirements. If Larkin does expand his list and the Devils’ name appears on it, the acquisition cost from Detroit would almost certainly require a piece of the quality of Dawson Mercer — a former first-round pick with three 20-goal seasons — as the centerpiece of any New Jersey package, a decision that would have its own roster implications for the team Mehta is building. That trade, if it happens, would be one of the most significant moves of the offseason for any team in the league. As of Tuesday, it remains a possibility to monitor rather than an active negotiation to report.
For Devils fans tracking the full shape of the 2026-27 roster as it takes form through the summer, the practical accounting after all of the week’s transactions looks like this: the core of Hischier, Jack Hughes, and the returning supporting cast is secured, Hayton’s answer arrives Thursday, Dawson Mercer is the most frequently mentioned name in trade speculation for the league’s biggest available center, Malek and Steeves are locked into their organizational roles, Rittich and Allen form the goaltending tandem with Daws in reserve, and Sunny Mehta has demonstrated across the past ten days that he is willing to use every tool in the collective bargaining agreement — long-term captain extensions, the first offer sheet in two years, simultaneous multi-player trades, and sustained monitoring of available market opportunities — to build a team that can compete meaningfully in the Eastern Conference. What the roster looks like by the time training camp opens in September is still being determined.
