With most of their core players signed to long-term contracts, the New Jersey Devils will not need to dip their toe into the deep end of the free-agent waters this summer. Instead, they would be wiser to target complementary players and acquire them through trades. They have built up a stockpile of assets in prospects, NHL roster players, and draft picks sufficient to command a return adequate to address the team’s needs. General manager Tom Fitzgerald has shown a penchant for making “hockey” trades throughout his tenure. He is willing to part with talented players who haven’t reached their potential to fill more immediate needs. He has also been willing to use his draft picks to acquire players his staff has targeted to fit the team’s needs. He will have to marshall all of the tools in his arsenal this summer if he is going to get the Devils back on a winning course and not waste the prime years of his stars.
Related: 5 Devils the NHL Should Consider for Its Upcoming Amazon Series
This summer is primed to be an especially difficult one in free agency for the clubs needing to add players. Combine a lack of depth of top talent in the free agency pool with the fact that the salary cap is rising and you have a market ripe for inflated contracts. The past few summers have seen teams crippled by the years of a flat salary cap that has limited what they can spend and considerably shrunk the pie being divided amongst the free agents. This summer, those concerns are gone, and teams will be willing to overpay for lesser talent just because they can. The more strategic general managers will look to acquire talent via trades where they can take advantage of contracts signed during the flat cap era, get better value for their resources in the early stages of the summer, and then pivot to free agency to scoop up players to fill in the gaps as needed. This is the plan the Devils should follow. The other advantage is there is no need to wait until after the draft to make moves to bolster the team.
Throughout the last three seasons, the Devils have been a part of several trades with varying degrees of complexity, from something as simple as being a salary cap space broker for the Calgary Flames in the Chris Tanev deal to a blockbuster deal with the San Jose Sharks to acquire Timo Meier that included multiple players and significant draft capital with conditions. In that time, Fitzgerald has consummated trades with many other teams besides the Flames and Sharks, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadians, Washington Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Winnipeg Jets. He has also had deep conversations with many other teams over time and has considerable relationships with and earned respect from his peers. The Devils have distinct needs in a top-six winger, a third-line center, a goaltender, and a reliable two-way puck-moving left-hand shot defenseman. All of these should be able to be found through the trade market.
Before hunting for value in the trade market, Fitzgerald will likely conduct his search for a new head coach. The new coach will want certain players or archetypes in his room to help him acclimate and speed up the current players’ adoption of a new system. For example, should the Devils hire Craig Berube, St. Louis may rise to the top of the trade partner list. Similarly, should Penguins coach Mike Sullivan be let go by the team and hired by Fitzgerald, he would likely push to bring over some of the Penguins veterans while having a great read on prospects in the Pittsburgh system. With that in mind, here is a look at teams who could be potential trade partners for New Jersey this off-season: some they have traded with recently, others who they have not but are a match due to mutual need, keeping in mind that each of these partners are considered mutually exclusive rather than contingent upon each other.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins’ resurgence to close out the season has probably cost the Devils a chance at hiring Sullivan away from the spot where he has been so successful, but it doesn’t mean that the teams are not a match in the trade market. As their game Tuesday night showed, they are opposites of each other. The Devils are an upstart team full of talent and skill but lacking the grit and experience to shut down and close out games. The Penguins entered the season as the only team averaging over 30 years of age. With Sidney Crosby about to lock up his 19th consecutive season of scoring a point per game, the Penguins are not looking to rebuild but to get younger to keep their window open for as long as possible.
The Devils’ biggest need, an elite goaltender, will not be filled via trade with the Penguins, but several of their other urgent needs could be solved with a phone call from Fitzgerald to Penguins GM Kyle Dubas. In his first year as GM, he spent the off-season looking to add veterans around Crosby to give him pieces to try to make a run. In doing so the Penguins took on contracts with significant financial commitments. Having had a year to evaluate his team and prospect pipeline, Dubas is certain to spend this summer putting his stamp on the team trying to toe the line between getting younger and remaining competitive for his aging stars to have a shot at one more Stanley Cup.
The two biggest needs for Pittsburgh are to get younger and free up cap flexibility to continue building around Crosby. Losing forward Jake Guentzel at the trade deadline left a hole in their top line for a scoring forward and they have also struggled with an older defense corps and in goal. The Devils have answers to some of those issues, in players like Alexander Holtz, Seamus Casey, John Marino, Kevin Bahl, Akira Schmid and Nico Daws. They also have the draft capital to offer that could replenish some of the Penguins’ missing picks.
Three players the Devils should take a look at to fill their own holes are veteran forwards Reilly Smith and Lars Eller as well as left-shot defenseman Marcus Pettersson. Smith would bring the experience of over 100 playoff games having won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights and the ability to play both wings on any line in the top nine as well as both the power play and penalty kill. Eller is a great fit as a 3C for New Jersey and also brings size, the ability to play on special teams and 49 playoff points in 103 games, and like Smith, has his name etched on the Stanley Cup. The two combine for almost $7.5 million in cap space but both are only signed for one more year. Clearing that space would be attractive to Pittsburgh while the lack of term would be attractive to New Jersey as several of their young players will soon need extensions.
The final piece is Pettersson who would bring size, mobility and bite to the Devils’ left side. He leads the team in blocks and defensemen in hits. At 27 he fits with the Devils’ long-term window. Smith and Pettersson both have modified no-trade clauses with a limited number of teams, while Eller does not. Pettersson is also on an expiring deal and would be a candidate for an immediate extension should the Devils acquire him and be able to fill the second or third-pair left-side defenseman role for years to come. Pittsburgh certainly has some gems worth mining for the Devils and their needs align.
Ottawa Senators
The roster construction of the Ottawa Senators is curious. The team boasts many talented players but continues to play well below its talent level and fail to reach its potential. With another year outside of the playoff picture, the team is sure to be looking to upgrade and plug holes. Their biggest hole is in net where the team is 32nd in goals saved above expected and 30th in goals against average. The Devils have a stockpile of young goaltenders that they would be willing to part with for the right return. The Senators need to move one of their defensemen as Jake Sanderson’s entry-level contract is about to go from a cap hit of $800,000 to $8 million. The simplest move would be to dangle Jakob Chychrun, a super-talented left-shot, two-way defenseman who would fit perfectly into the Devils’ style of play. A trade consisting of a goalie for Chychrun as the centerpiece makes sense for both teams.
St. Louis Blues
The Devils need a starting goaltender and a coach as well as a mobile power forward who can grind in the bottom six. They could do worse than trying to pry away Jordan Binnington and Sammy Blais after hiring Berube. Pavel Buchnevich would also be a perfect fit as a winger for Jack Hughes. Like the Devils, the Blues appear to be falling short of the playoffs with an interim head coach, which will likely lead to personnel changes when a new coach is acquired. The most glaring need for St. Louis is on defense where five of their six starters are over 30. The Devils have an abundance of young defensemen both on the NHL roster in Bahl and Marino, as well as prospects like Santeri Hatakka, Seamus Casey, and others without touching Nemec or Hughes.
The Blues have a young goaltender in Joel Hofer who could be pushing Binnington out. With all the trade deadline noise being about Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark, and Juuse Saros, now with more time and room to maneuver, Binnington may actually be the best fit of the four. He plays with an edge, has won a Stanley Cup, is only 30, and is signed for three more seasons with a cap charge of just $6 million, while his actual salary decreases each year. He put up stellar numbers this season and if brought to New Jersey would be paired with a tandem partner and goalie coach who brought out his best season and were part of a group that won the Stanley Cup. Similarly, Buchnevich would be a huge prize with little risk as he is set to make just $5.8 million on an expiring contract and is a perfect fit for the Devils style. Should they hire Berube, trades with the Blues would likely become a priority.
Vegas Golden Knights
To the surprise of nobody, the Vegas Golden Knights have again gone all in. They weaponized their long-term injured reserve (LTIR) cap space to add significant pieces at the trade deadline. In doing so, they have mortgaged some of their future and depleted their draft capital, lacking picks in rounds two through five of this season and first-round picks in 2025 and 2026. Currently, the Golden Knights are projected to have approximately $8 million in cap space heading into the off-season with only 16 players under contract. It would make sense that they would need to dump salary without taking on assets that would impact the cap. A few players who would be of interest to New Jersey are goaltender Adin Hill who is on an expiring contract with a $4.9 million cap charge, which is significantly higher than Logan Thompson. Hill is only 27, has won a Stanley Cup and has played to above-average stats. The only concern would be his durability as he has never played more than 32 regular season games.
The other area the Devils may focus on is the outstanding defense corps that Vegas has built. The Golden Knights are expected to do all they can to lock up defenseman Noah Hanifan to a long-term deal before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July. In doing so, they are likely to eat up the entirety of their available cap space. They may be forced to make a choice between Hanifan and veteran Shea Theodore who would be another perfect fit for New Jersey between his leadership and experience. Theodore also would bring a record of 68 points in 107 playoff games. The Devils could replenish Vegas’ draft stock or provide NHL-ready players on entry-level contracts. The Devils could also look at Zach Whitecloud who would come at a cheaper price and is under contract for another four years. Vegas is going to have to shed salary and the Devils should be there to assist.
Other options exist as trade partners. The Devils have a great relationship with the Sharks. Could that turn into defenseman Mario Ferraro? The Arizona Coyotes are another team with stockpiles of players in need of a change of scenery. Three possible players that would be good fits from Arizona are Nick Bjugstad to fill the 3C role, Lawson Crouse, and Alexander Kerfoot for grit and experience in the bottom six. Regardless of which path they choose, the Devils will need to be active in the trade market to fill their needs as free agency will not hold all the answers.
