The New Jersey Devils opened training camp like most teams on Thursday; however, it was a little different as one of their key players, Dawson Mercer, was not in attendance.
As documented, Mercer is a restricted free agent without a contract. He is coming off his entry-level deal and needs an agreement to attend camp and hopefully begin the season with the Devils in Prague against the Buffalo Sabres.
New Jersey Devils and Dawson Mercer Heading Towards A Bridge Deal
After the team took the Ice Devils, President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald and Sheldon Keefe met with the media. Fitzgerald was asked about when a deal for Mercer could be struck. The Devils General Manager felt that it was very close to happening.
“I think we’re very close,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve had very healthy conversations, his agent and I, and very respectful. But until it’s finished, he’ll be missing parts of camps. Hopefully, we can get that done soon.”
From the lines on Day 1 of the training camp, PTO invitee and former member of the San Jose Sharks, Kevin Labanc, was skating with Nico Hischier and Tomas Tatar. Many felt that going into the season, Mercer was pegged for a top-six role with the New Jersey Devils.
Unfortunately, his presence at camp means someone will have to step up. And it is tough not to have a player of his calibre there. But there is a reason why Fitzgerald went out and got depth players in the offseason and invited others to camp.
It’s tough, but the one thing that we needed to do here, from the hockey ops side of it, was built depth,” Fitzgerald said. You know, you’re going to have injuries, you’re going to have a situation like this. So it’s that next man-up mentality.”
Thus, Labanc fills in for Mercer until he shows up at camp. This is a different situation than Jeremy Swayman‘s. Bruins GM Don Sweeney was hopeful he could get their number one goalie signed before the December 1st deadline. The Devils were more positive on Thursday.
New Jersey Devils Need Dawson Mercer at Training Camp
As documented, the Devils can only give Mercer a bridge deal. Whether it is two years or three years will depend on his AAV. The Devils like to maximize their cap space. Ideally, they would like to keep it under $4 million, considering they only have $4.7 million of cap space. And if one of their PTO players makes it out of training camp, they need money for that player only with calls up throughout the season.
In a perfect world, Mercer is signed under $3 million. That is not happening. The number for Mercer is between $3 million and $3.5 million. That would be under Shane Pinto ($3.75 million AAV) of the Ottawa Senators and Kirill Marchenko ($3.85 million AAV) of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Things between the two sides increased over the weekend and this week. It’s funny how the unofficial deadline of the first day of training camp will do that. Tom Fitzgerald and the Devils want to get Dawson Mercer signed by the end of the week or weekend so he can participate in some practices and a preseason game or two before the team heads to Prague to start the season.
Mercer, his agent, and Fitzgerald continue grinding away at a deal.
