Devils Take Next Step In Drive To Next Level With Toffoli Trade
The Devils were bound to make some moves this offseason given their high volume of their own free agents and fixed cap space, most of which was expected to be consumed by the re-signings of restricted free agent wings Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier.
As such, never did I believe that New Jersey General Manager Tom Fitzgerald would find room in the budget to add a 34-goal scorer like Tyler Toffoli, who was acquired in a trade with Calgary on Tuesday in exchange for underperforming RFA Yegor Sharangovich and the third-round pick Fitzgerald obtained from Columbus in the sigh-and-trade of Damon Severson, who already had one foot out the Devils’ door once his contract value became too rich for a third-pair defenseman.
Actually, the big bill for Toffoli, 31, will probably come due next season, as he is in the final year of a 4-year, $17 million deal. The $4.25 million AAV pretty much equates to what Tomas Tatar, another pending UFA, made last season in a similar top-six role.
Toffoli, though, is bigger and has vastly superior hands when compared with the streaky Tatar, who continued his record of postseason disappearances by producing one point (a goal) in New Jersey’s 12 playoff contests. Playing together on the 2020-21 Canadiens, Toffoli notched five goals and 14 assists during the team’s march to the Stanley Cup Final whereas Tatar was benched after registering just one assist in his five games.
Toffoli’s goal explosion last season was a career high and only the second time in 11 seasons where he broke the 30-goal barrier. However, his 12.7% shooting percentage didn’t exceed his career mark by much, indicating that the risk of a severe dropoff is low.
While more of a plodder than the typical high-flying Devils forward, Toffoli has a record of driving play as measured by advanced stats like Corsi and expected goals for percentage. On a middling team that missed out on the playoffs last season, he finished in the black in both categories at five-on-five, including posting the Flames’ second-best EGF% among their forwards. In his last ten seasons, he was credited with just two sub-50% EGF% marks, which includes a half-season on a dreadful Montreal squad.
The word on Toffoli is that he is a locker room leader, another player who can help the ascending Devils reach the next level after securing their first playoff series victory since 2012 by knocking off the rival Rangers in last season’s first round. New Jersey’s young captain Nico Hischier now has another voice and sounding board to go to with Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula when looking for experienced advice.
How Toffoli figures into New Jersey’s lineup will be TBD, but you have to imagine he’ll be riding shotgun with either Hischier or Jack Hughes on a top line and be a power play presence. Even with a slew of RFAs still unsigned, the Devils are loaded up front, with a potential top-six of Meier/Hischier/Toffoli and Palat/Hughes/Bratt. You could also see Dawson Mercer, coming off a 27-goal sophomore campaign, or Haula, who Head Coach Lindy Ruff liked to use with Hughes last season to ease the faceoff/defensive zone burdens, nudging into bigger roles.
Sharangovich once had such an opportunity as a talented two-way player with a heavy shot, but the Devils could no longer accommodate his inconsistent performances. The franchise is in a different mode, one with unmerciful accountability.
That’s been a good thing. We saw it last year with the departures of former first round picks Pavel Zacha and Ty Smith, which brought back Haula and top-pair defenseman John Marino. And now the organization has bid farewell to Severson, Sharangovich, and injury-plagued goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, with Tatar and Miles Wood likely to follow. Buried in the Toffoli news on Tuesday was the trade of Blackwood’s RFA rights to San Jose for a sixth-round pick and reports of the Devils giving Wood permission to negotiate a new deal elsewhere in advance of Saturday’s start to NHL free agency.
That the team has managed to get better (on paper) in this transition is a testament to Fitzgerald’s savviness. And with the goaltending situation still at best unsettled, he may not be done, financial constraints be damned.