It’s not that the Devils weren’t busy this offseason. They signed clutch unrestricted free agent forward Ondrej Palat, brought in much-needed help in goal in Vitek Vanecek and traded for the likes of John Marino and Erik Haula.

Oh, but it could have been bigger than that.

It’s well documented the Devils tried on top UFA Johnny Gaudreau, and I’m told Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald was on the phone with both the player and his wife around 12:15 p.m. Eastern in the opening minutes of free agency July 13 to express the organization’s interest. And, yes, the Devils made an offer, although I don’t think it was the kind of double-digit average-annual-value offer that would have closed the deal. The Devils were still trying on it when they got the news, like the rest of us, that Gaudreau had chosen the Blue Jackets.

But I think the more interesting nugget I came across this week as I tried to play catch up after some offseason time away, was that the Devils also tried pretty hard on trading for Matthew Tkachuk.

The Devils had a number of discussions with the Flames about it. But in the end, as I reported in my Flames offseason piece this past week, Calgary was given a specific list of teams by Newport Sports to which Tkachuk would agree to a sign-and-trade.

I believe those teams were Colorado, Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, Vegas and St. Louis. So the Devils ultimately couldn’t get into that derby.

And that’s OK. This Devils team will turn a corner led by its young core of Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes and Dawson Mercer. And getting more saves this season.

But I would keep an eye on the Devils again for next offseason. They’ve got up to $25 million in potential expiring UFA contracts that could come off the books. They’ll want to re-sign some of those players, but still, there’s big-time cap flexibility coming if that’s what the Devils want.