Devils Make Pointless Trade As Goaltending Issues Continue To Cost Them Valuable Points
The Devils finally made a trade on Friday.
Was it for a desperately-needed goalie? A top-four defenseman? What about a third-line center to replace the arrested Michael McLeod?
Nope, nope, and nope. After watching his club struggle to stay within striking distance of an Eastern Conference playoff seed, New Jersey General Manager Tom Fitzgerald made one of the most pointless trades he has ever executed, sending 2021 seventh round pick Zakhar Bardakov, who is playing in Russia, and a 2024 seventh rounder to Colorado to acquire tough guy Kurtis MacDermid.
Great, more deadwood on the roster. MacDermid, a 6-foot 5 233 pounder who has registered 11 goals and 19 assists in 249 career NHL games, had played poorly at two positions for Colorado—left wing and defense. As if the Devils needed another Brendan Smith.
On the high-flying Avalanche, MacDermid posted the team’s lowest expected goals for percentage of any player who saw more than 6 games of action this season, per NaturalStatTrick.com. In seven NHL seasons, the 29-year old has yet to see a minute of playoff ice time, a healthy scratch throughout Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup run.
Former Devils beat writer Chris Ryan tweeted that maybe the Devils sought him out so they could have someone who could stand up to Rangers goon Matt Rempe. He was probably only half joking, because McDermid was allegedly well-liked in the Avs locker room.
Still, what are we doing here? The Devils, who suffered yet another bad loss to a lousy team on Friday night when Jack Hughes took the shot out of a penalty shot, fumbling the puck away as he bore in on Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal with two seconds remaining in a 4-3 road loss, are running out of time to make a real playoff push. New Jersey (30-26-4) remained five points behind Philadelphia for third place in the Metropolitan Division with just 22 games to go.
You could pin this loss on Head Coach Lindy Ruff for failing to recognize that his goalie Nico Daws was a bit slow reacting on the few Ducks chances over the first two periods, almost all of which ended in the back of the net (NST had Daws with a minus-2.45 goals saved above average for the game—that’s just brutal). I thought Daws should have been pulled after he failed to shut the door at his left post and let former Devils hero Adam Henrique squeeze one past him for a 2-1 Ducks lead with 1:45 remaining in the first period. Instead, Ruff waited until the start of the third period with the Devils down 4-2 to sub in backup Akira Schmid. It was at least one goal against too late.
Meanwhile, Dostal, who was apparently ill, stood on his head in making 52 saves as the Devils, who had two days off, couldn’t take advantage of a lousy Ducks squad playing on a back-to-back. NST had the expected goals as 5-1.5 in New Jersey’s favor.
Just par for the course for this underachieving group, which has missed out on accumulating valuable points by losing to teams like the Sharks, Blue Jackets, Canadiens, Coyotes, and now the Ducks for a second time this season.
For his part, Fitzgerald has been foolish in allowing his club’s goaltending shortcomings to fester throughout this season to date. He has done nothing while preseason No. 1 goalie Vitek Vanecek has been out for the last 10 games with a mysterious injury. Daws may have the potential to be part of a solution, but to expect him to be ridden for nine of these starts when it was only during December that he was cleared to return to action following major hip surgery was never going to be sustainable.
The Devils have one more game on Sunday at Los Angeles in their three-game California trip. Fitzgerald then has until Friday pick a lane—get a goalie before the March 8 trade deadline or sell off his pending free agents, even leading goal scorer Tyler Toffoli.
Just stop wasting everyone’s time with these depth pieces moves that will make zero impact on the Devils’ outcome this season.