NHL Trade Season Is Gearing Up—How Hard Will Devils Go To Maintain Competitive Balance?
Approximately two-thirds of the NHL season remains and the trade deadline is three months from Saturday. Yet it doesn’t seem too early to speculate about forthcoming deals.
The Rangers apparently accelerated the process with Friday’s trade of defenseman Jacob Trouba to Anaheim and the cost certainty they obtained by securing the services of franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin for the next eight years. A rumor mongering New York Post columnist has New York pining for another star like Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk.
That could initiate an arms race in the already loaded Metropolitan Division, where Washington, Carolina, and New Jersey rank in the NHL’s top six in points percentage and where the formidable Rangers, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, also resided before their recent slump necessitated drastic action.
The Devils may be rolling right now—Friday night’s 3-2 victory over visiting Seattle was their 13th in their last 18 games—but they have to be paying attention. It was only a week ago when General Manager Tom Fitzgerald was quoted in The Athletic about being in touch with other clubs regarding depth pieces for his forward group.
Major injuries to Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian has forced New Jersey to call up a rotating cast of minor leaguers to fill the fourth line, with Justin Dowling settling in at center and Narthan Legare the latest to audition on the right wing. So adding another center who could potentially help with faceoffs and the penalty kill to take some of the load off captain Nico Hischier, as Fitzgerald suggested, made sense.
Assuming the goal is going deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs, however, that might not be enough. Even during this nice little run, the Devils have been incredibly top heavy, relying on their stars and a dominant power play to generate offense. Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes have combined to score 17 even strength goals during the last 18 games; the rest of the team has 23, and five of those have come off the surprisingly hot stick of Stefan Noesen, whose next goal would match his career high from his prior 10 NHL seasons.
Hughes (4 goals and 13 assists) and Bratt (8 goals and 10 assists) have been nearly unstoppable over the last 11 games and it hasn’t mattered that linemate Ondrej Palat (1 goal and 3 assists) has barely contributed on the scoresheet during their shared ice time. That’s because more than half of the two stars’ points have come with the man advantage; Palat’s role is to bring a defensive diligence to the trio at even strength. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, Seattle’s first goal on Friday night was the first allowed by the line at five-on-five in nearly a month, covering 12 games and about 111 minutes of ice time.
But is keeping a chronic regular season underachiever like Palat on the top line and hoping Noesen doesn’t cool off a solid bet for the postseason? As the Devils found out during their last appearance two seasons ago, rush chances tend to dry up in the playoffs and opponents go the extra mile to limit stars’ scoring chances. The Devils needed more oomph up front, even after trading a haul for Timo Meier.
Adding another high-end talent might take some salary cap wizardry from Fitzgerald—per PuckPedia.com, the Devils are on schedule to only have a little over $1 million in cap space by the trade deadline (reason No. 136 as to why extending goon Kurtis MacDermid in the offseason for about a $1.1 million AAV was a stupid move by Fitzgerald)—and the cost in terms of consideration going the other way could be prohibitive.
The Devils, though, do have assets to trade. Their 2025 first round pick is likely headed to Calgary since the offseason trade for goalie Jacob Markstrom was merely top 10 protected, but they have a couple of extra second rounders from the previous Tyler Toffoli and John Marino deals (New Jersey’s own second rounder only conveys to Montreal if backup goalie Jake Allen plays at least 40 games). The Devils’ prospect pool isn’t as deep as it once was, but I’m sure there would be teams interested in Simon Nemec or Seamus Casey, both of whom are toiling at AHL Utica with their paths blocked by New Jersey’s top three righthanded defensemen playing at high levels.
This is all theoretical at the moment. Acquiring a top-line forward would allow someone like Palat or Noesen to drop down to a more appropriate slot, which could then have a domino effect on the skill skating on the bottom six. However, Fitzgerald and Head Coach Sheldon Keefe like how the team is playing, particularly how well they’ve been committed to defending on most nights. Palat is bringing balance to the top line and Noesen has expanded upon his impactful power play net front presence to help Hischier and Meier sport a resounding 65% expected goals for percentage since the line was constructed before the team’s Florida trip 11 games ago, per NST.
So maybe instead of Tkachuk (assuming Ottawa drops out of the wild card race and decides to sell in advance of the trade deadline), how about looking into center Claude Giroux as a rental? He’s been an elite faceoff man throughout his 18-year NHL career and, at 36, is still playing regular minutes for the Senators at all strengths with positive NST metrics. Obviously, the Devils would have to pay extra to get Ottawa to retain a large chunk of the $6.5 million cap hit on his expiring contract, but a deal could get done. How does a second rounder and a mid-tier prospect like Lenni Hameenaho sound as a starting point?
I don’t expect Fitzgerald to stand pat in advance of the trade deadline. I believe he understands that this is a win-now team. How hard will he go? That might depend on how heavily the competition is arming.