Metro Notes: Toffoli, Tippett, Chytil, Svechnikov

In his press conference this afternoon, the General Manager of the New Jersey Devils, Tom Fitzgerald, spoke on the upcoming unrestricted free agency of forward Tyler Toffoli and his interest in extending Toffoli beyond this season (X Link). Fitzgerald mentioned that he has had multiple agents with Toffoli’s agent to gauge the interest in Toffoli returning to the Devils for the next several years.

Acquired from the Calgary Flames over the offseason, the trade for Toffoli will likely be one of the bigger win-win trades for both teams. With Yegor Sharangovich producing rather well in Calgary, Toffoli currently sits third on the Devils in points with 20 goals and 33 points in 45 games.

At 31 years of age, it is unlikely that Toffoli will command a long-term contract by any stretch, but with his production over the last couple of seasons, he may command anywhere from $6MM-$7MM on the open market. Having just over $67MM in commitments for next season, New Jersey will have around $20MM in cap space next summer, giving them an adequate amount of space to retain Toffoli under that dollar value. However, with Michael McLeod and Dawson Mercer also needing contracts after this season, the Devils may look to spend their money elsewhere.

Other Metro notes:

• With several roster moves taking place today for the Philadelphia Flyers, the team also announced that they have placed forward Owen Tippett on injured reserve retroactive to January 21st. Unfortunately, with the Flyers’ last game before the All-Star break coming on January 27th, this means that Tippett will have to wait until February 6th to get back into a game. On a similar pace to last season, Tippett has scored 18 goals and 30 points in 46 games for Philadelphia so far this year.
• Having been on the New York Rangers’ long-term injured reserve since November 28th, there is still no timeline for the return of Filip Chytil according to head coach Peter Laviolette (X Link). Hoping to build off his successful 2022-23 season under a new coach, Chytil has only managed 10 games before suffering an upper-body injury in early November, limiting his production to a total of six assists on the season.
• In an undisclosed injury up to this point, Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal is reporting that Carolina Hurricanes’ forward Andrei Svechnikov would miss the team’s game against the Boston Bruins. Already dealing with injuries earlier in the season, Svechnikov has returned at a scorching pace, scoring 11 goals and 30 points in 29 games. In later reporting, Lavalette noted that Svechnikov’s current injury is unrelated to his injury struggles earlier in the year.