3 Potential Free-Agent Destinations for Dylan DeMelo

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo currently sits without a contract for next season. The pending free agent is set to hit the open market on July 1 and will have a long list of interested teams making contact with him and his agent.

DeMelo is coming off a strong season where he recorded 31 points in 82 games and fun fact, DeMelo is the +/- leader for all pending free-agents this summer, after he posted a +46 rating last season, playing over 21 minutes a night. 

Here's three teams who will be interested in signing DeMelo this summer:

Dallas Stars

If the Stars lose Chris Tanev, they will likely circle in on DeMelo, who can bring some of the same elements and is of course, also right-handed. The Stars know DeMelo well and with their $16.2 million in cap space, will need to be creative in order to fill some gaps next season. An easy way to get DeMelo's AAV down would be to add another year of term, we'll have to wait and see if Jim Nill is interested in a three or four year contract.

Minnesota Wild

The Wild are in a huge cap crunch as Ryan Suter and Zach Parise's buyouts are still over $14 million in dead cap space for next season, however Bill Guerin is trying to do a couple of things this offseason. This includes trading Filip Gustavsson and also re-tooling his defense core. DeMelo would give him a RHD who has a ton of experience, can play heavy minutes and is a strong penalty killer, which Minnesota needs to improve. DeMelo makes a lot of sense to be on the Wild's radar.

New Jersey Devils

The Devils are in on just about everything right now as Tom Fitzgerald is dangling the #10 overall pick in the trade market. The Devils also have $19.1 million in cap space and need to land a top-four defenseman and a couple of forwards with some grit. DeMelo would be a great option to slide behind Dougie Hamilton and ahead of Simon Nemec on the right side of the Devils defense core for the next three seasons.

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