New Jersey Devils Going All In
Jimmy Murphy of RG Media: As Murphy writes, the New Jersey Devils will go all in at the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7th. The Devils would like to address several areas, including depth down the middle and depth on offense and defense. The biggest need has been in the top six, but as President and GM Tom Fitzgerald told Murphy, you can never have enough depth at any position.
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“Would we like to add some depth scoring? Would we like to add some support on the back? You can never have enough of that, right? So what’s the cost? We’re looking at that and we will figure it out but I think we have that here. So it’s up to me to add to that and it’s up to the guys we have to do that too.”
The Devils have been linked to the Montreal Canadiens and center Jake Evans. As has been reported, they are 100 percent trading for a center. Evans makes sense as he can fill a need in the bottom six along with kill penalties.
It will be interesting to see how aggressive the Devils are at the deadline, especially given the needs they have to fill.
What will the Montreal Canadiens do at the Deadline?
Arpon Basu of The Athletic: As Basu writes, the Montreal Canadiens have several players of interest come the NHL Trade Deadline. As documented, Jake Evans and Joel Armia have trade value as teams around the league need centers. But they might also want the best penalty-killing unit in the league. Armia has expressed a desire to stay in Montreal. Meanwhile, Evans and his camp are far apart from the Canadiens when it comes to an extension; thus, a trade is likely.
Now, each player could give the Canadiens something, but they don’t want picks or prospects; they have enough of those. Evans could get as much as a second-rounder, but with Armia, it could be more. Not to mention David Savard and Christian Dvorak.
But Kent Hughes isn’t going to make a trade for the sake of making a trade. He knows anything he does will have residual effects on the lineup.
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