I've seen a bunch of people talk in different ways about how cap space isn't actually an asset for one of two reasons 1) Teams are getting bailed out of cap crunches, 2) Cap space is only valuable of you use it and the Devils don't.

I think both are very wrong.

1/

People point to TB as the most recent ex. of dodging cap issues.

You realize they had to sacrifice an entire season of an MVP-caliber player to do so, right? So if the argument is "hey NYR (or whoever) can always LTIR Panarin"...

1) no they can't, 2) okay they'll be bad tho

2/

The second half was that the Devils don't use cap space. This is wrong for two reasons: a) they haven't been good enough to warrant spending the whole cap yet, b) they have weaponized cap space to acquire a bunch of assets over this rebuild

3/

They've gotten pretty unlucky as the shots they took on Mojo, Subban, Johnsson, Murray, etc. have all not really panned out, but it's it really that hard to see how it just as easily could have worked amazingly well?

4/

Also, combining these two factors, a player Tampa had to pay 2 first rounders to get Blake Coleman from us, a lopsided value only reasonable because Tampa was in a bind and we were not.

5/

So, in short, 1) Yes, it's actually bad to run out of cap space, 2) The Devils haven't had a reason spend the cap yet, 3) But they have weaponized their cap space several times already and will continue to do so when prudent.

6/6