Smith Trade Another Move In Fitzgerald’s Bid To Improve Devils’ Accountability Standards
Who Will Be Next?
About time Tom Fitzgerald got around to trimming the deadwood.
The Devils general manager followed up on his trade of underachieving forward Pavel Zacha to Boston on Wednesday by swapping defensemen Ty Smith to Pittsburgh in exchange for the more stable John Marino on Saturday. New Jersey had to throw in a 2023 third-round pick as well.
Before the market open, Fitzgerald waived and bought out the contract of forward Janne Kuokkanen, who also has been a disappointment in a Devils uniform. If nothing else, these moves indicate that the organization might be finally ready to transition to a new era of accountability. You have to wonder if anyone else is on the chopping block (looking at you, Michael McLeod).
Unlike Zacha, whom the Devils drafted with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Smith has only two NHL seasons under his belt following his 17th overall selection in 2018. Still, there has been enough of a sample size for Fitzgerald to make the call to cut bait on the undersized d-man.
There is no doubt that Smith possesses high-end offensive traits, from his passing to his ability to walk the blue line in the offensive zone. He can be an effective power play quarterback.
Unfortunately, Smith hasn’t been nearly effective in his primary role of defending. The eye test belied any improvement he made in his possession metrics over the second half of last season. For a player who has been regaled for his skating prowess, I was astonished at how often he was beaten to pucks. Even when he was first on them, he was too easily displaced by forecheckers. And since the Devils didn’t exactly have stalwarts in net, a slew of those sequences ended up in New Jersey’s net, putting a further spotlight on those misplays.
I thought it was telling when Penguins General Manager Ron Hextall talked about the “risk” his team is taking by banking on their ability to rehabilitate Smith and then mentioned how sending him down to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is “an option.” It took a slew of lousy performances for the Devils to healthy scratch Smith for a few games.
In contrast, Marino, 25, comes to New Jersey with a reputation as a steady hand on the blue line. He’s not a bad puck-mover, which is why Pittsburgh leaned on him with top-four minutes last season. He just won’t wow you as often with the highlight-reel play. He has just 10 career goals in 189 games over his three NHL seasons, but with Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson already in tow on the right side, the Devils need more of a penalty killer than a PP specialist anyway.
With Marino locked into a $4.4 million AAV contract for the next five seasons and the Devils heavily invested in the development of 2022 No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec, another righthanded defenseman, the Devils are now protected should extension negotiations with pending unrestricted free agent Severson go sideways. Both sides maintain their optimism on a new deal in public, but we all know that nothing is guaranteed until ink meets paper.
Going forward, Severson’s own penchant for lax play in the Devils zone must now be put under the same microscope as others who have been cast aside this offseason despite his significant offensive talents. I would note that the same rules apply to McLeod, though on the production side rather than through his defensive diligence. The Devils will be carrying Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer and Erik Haula, the return in the Zacha deal, into training camp, all of whom should comfortably be able to man the middle. How much longer can Fitzgerald roster such an offensive nonentity as McLeod, who will reach restricted free agency after this season and has just 15 career goals in 162 games, for simply his faceoff efficiencies—he ranked seventh in the league in overall win percentage last season (minimum 500 faceoffs), including second on defensive zone draws?
For if the Devils are truly ready to turn the corner and join the ranks of competitive NHL clubs, they need to keep enforcing a put-up-or-your-gone mentality.