New Jersey Devils sign Miles Wood to one-year, $3.2 million contract

The New Jersey Devils have signed winger Miles Wood to a one year, $3.2 million contract, and avoid arbitration in the process.

Wood was a restricted free agent after finishing up a four year deal with a $2.75 million cap hit. The Devils had originally elected arbitration, with the hearing scheduled for August 6th. However, both parties did submit their arbitration filings earlier on Thursday, with the Devils submitting $2.975 million and Wood submitting $3.85 million, so the final deal falls a bit closer to what the Devils wanted.

It was an injury-riddled 2021-22 season for Wood, going pointless in just three games in late March and early April, and eventually having surgery on his hip. However, he did have a strong season in 2020-21, with 17 goals and 25 points in 55 games, so we’ll likely see that kind of form in 2022-23 if his surgery went well. With all this considered, it makes the one year deal a “show me” for the Devils, who will get to make sure that he’s still the same player post-surgery before committing to him long term.

Wood’s two-way game isn’t quite there, with just a 45.18% shot attempt share and 45.91% expected goal share at even strength in the past three seasons, and his playmaking isn’t strong either, as evidenced by his career-high of just 14 assists. He does a decent job at helping generate scoring chances, but he’s also a very strong forechecker, so he does a lot of his damage in that regard.

With this signing, the Devils now have all of their big name RFAs taken care of, after locking up Jesper Bratt on Wednesday. The Devils now find themselves just $73,375 under the salary cap, thanks to the additions of Vitek Vanecek, Ondrej Palat, John Marino, and Brendan Smith, as well as the start of Jack Hughes extension.