Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours! It is the dog days of summer and the amount of news is minimal. Exciting times are ahead though, as summer is nearing its end and fall begins. That means hockey is coming! There are still numerous restricted free agent players that remain unsigned. Todays Rumours swirl around the New Jersey Devils and their RFA forward.<\/p>\n
Rumour: Luke Fox with Sportsnet<\/a> discusses the latest on the RFA players that haven\u2019t signed <\/span><\/p>\n It is August, which means College Football is starting and so is NFL kickoff. Also, that means training camp for hockey is right around the corner. There are still numerous high profile restricted free agents that are not signed. Names such as Jeremy Swayman<\/a>, Lucas Raymond<\/a>, and Seth Jarvis<\/a> are still waiting for new deals. <\/span><\/p>\n The big domino that fell was Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield<\/a>. He got a handsome reward after popping off for a career year. Panic should not set in for the others, but the season is growing closer and closer. There is an update on some of the players that haven\u2019t signed and one of them is New Jersey Devils forward Dawson Mercer<\/a>. He has been a mainstay in the Devils lineup and is a player worth investing in. <\/span><\/p>\n The latest NHL Rumours swirl around Mercer and his pending contract. Mercer has been a constant in the lineup since being selected in the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft. Mercer went on to give the Devils\u00a0 <\/span>brass every reason to say keep him around. <\/span><\/p>\n Mercer has been healthy as a horse for the Devils, playing in every game over the three years of his career. Also, he set a Devils franchise record for most games played consecutively<\/a> and went on to pass Devils legend Scott Gomez<\/a> in that regard. <\/span><\/p>\n Mercer has been productive, notching 131 points in 246 games. He had a career year in 2022-23 with 27 goals and 56 points. He plays with great speed, is responsible at both ends of the ice, and can play in multiple situations. He is a great young player, so what\u2019s the hold up? <\/span><\/p>\n The Devils have had a busy offseason to say the least. General Manager Tom Fitzgerald<\/a> went out and got a starting goalie. He also made key free agent signings with Brett Pesce<\/a>, Brenden Dillon<\/a>, and Stefan Noesen<\/a>. Now the time is to turn to Mercer. <\/span><\/p>\n He isn\u2019t eligible for arbitration, so the leverage is not in his favour. However, the Devils do have $5 million in salary cap space. While the budget isn\u2019t stellar, there are different routes to go. <\/span><\/p>\n If the Devils go the bridge deal route, there is wiggle room to play with. But, if they want long term, putting pen to paper is going to be a challenge. There is no doubt Mercer will remain a Devil, it is just about figuring out the dollars. He is a focal point to what they are building and keeping him makes them deeper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Main Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours! It is the dog days of summer and the amount of news is minimal. Exciting times are ahead though, as summer is nearing its end and fall begins. That means hockey is coming! There are still numerous restricted free agent players that remain unsigned. Todays Rumours swirl around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4194,"featured_media":447567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,4547,13,4548],"tags":[6094],"class_list":["post-447566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-hockey","category-devils","category-nhl","tag-new-jersey-devils-rumours"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mercer Has Made His Mark <\/span><\/h3>\n
The Latest on Mercer <\/span><\/h3>\n