Hockey

Devils Are "Working Towards To An Agreement" With Dawson Mercer, GM Tom Fitzgerald Says

Published: Aug 19, 2024, 6:49 PM
1 min read
Updated: Jul 24, 2025, 11:26 AM
Fact checked by:
Sergey Demidov
Dawson Mercer

Dawson Mercer (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Could the New Jersey Devils and restricted free agent forward Dawson Mercer finally find common ground and reach an agreement on a new contract soon?

In an exclusive interview with RG on Monday, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald had this to say about locking up the 6-foot, 180-pound, 22-year-old center who scored 20 goals and had 18 assists in 82 games last season:

“We are working towards an agreement after exchanging proposals.”

Mercer is coming out of a three-year entry-level contract, $2.68 million ($894,67 AAV). As one NHL source opined to RG.org recently, Fitzgerald may be trying to take a similar contract route to Mercer’s teammate and Devils forward Jesper Bratt.

“Do they look at Bratt and the track he took as comparable?” the source asked. “I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Bratt signed a two-year, $5.5 million ($2.75M AAV) contract out of his three-year, $2.5 million ($749,000 AAV) entry-level contract. He signed a one-year, $5.45 million contract before finally signing his current eight-year, $63 million ($7.8M AAV) contract in 2023.

Last week, the St. Louis Blues woke up the NHL world by agreeing to offer sheets with Edmonton Oilers forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg. As of noon ET on Monday, the Oilers were yet to match Broberg’s two-year offer at $4,580,917 per season and Holloway's offer of $2,290,457 per year on a two-year term. They had until Tuesday to do so.

Like Broberg and Holloway, Mercer is eligible to accept an offer sheet, but given both sides' willingness to find common ground, that doesn’t seem likely to happen with Mercer.

Fitzgerald and the New Jersey Devils have arguably had one of the best offseasons in the NHL. 

They finally landed their man between the pipes in Jacob Markstrom back in June. Then they went on a free-agent spending spree that saw them land the likes of forwards Tomas Tatar and Stefan Noesen and highly-coveted defenseman Brett Pesce.

In addition, the Devils acquired forward Paul Cotter and a 2025 third-round pick from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward Alexander Holtz and goalie Akira Schmid, as well as defenseman Jonathan Kovacevic from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick.

The Devils also hired a new head coach in former Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe.

NHL Reporter
James Murphy is a veteran sports journalist with 25 years of experience covering the NHL, NCAA and CHL, including two decades on the Boston Bruins beat. His work has appeared on NHL.com, NESN, ESPN Boston and more, and he’s made regular TV and radio appearances on NESN, ESPN, TSN and SiriusXM. A familiar face in the hockey world, Murphy has covered multiple Stanley Cup Finals, NHL drafts and playoffs, and now co-hosts The Eye Test podcast with Pierre McGuire, interviewing top NHL executives, coaches and players. He joined RG in 2024 after stints with Boston Hockey Now and LiveBarn.
Interests:
NHL

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