Digging Into The New Jersey Devils
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: New Jersey sells at the trade deadline is once again a reality. For four of the last five seasons, the New Jersey Devils have players for rent, err, available for trade. With cap constraints and some teams on “budgets”, that might limit some returns. Tom Fitzgerald expects to be crafty because he will have to be for this April 12th deadline.
New Jersey possesses cap space and that could help. They also have plenty of expendables but some may need sweeteners.
Too many names like P.K. Subban and Will Butcher could just stay until the summer or later. Travis Zajac has a no-trade clause which means he likely stays too.
However, there is more on Kyle Palmieri from The Athletic. New Jersey’s not too distant past dictates that Palmieri will not be signed before the trade deadline. That feels like team policy at this point. Palmieri’s value is dipping, to say the least. The winger has just ten points in 22 games but has been crippled by bad puck luck and looking just “off” all season. Does New Jersey pull the trigger on a deal at this point?
After that, there is Nikita Gusev has been a large flop in year two. Ryan Murray played himself out of the lineup which seemed perplexing at times. Sami Vatanen performed poorly in stint number two so far with New Jersey. Dmitri Kulikov defends well and will generate interest.
After April 12th, the possibility the prospects start coming up in abundance keeps rising. Lots of auditions for next season will be seen.
Some top trade candidates
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period: While several top names are in limbo, some players are not. For example, Rickard Rakell could go to several teams including Pittsburgh and even Toronto. Mattias Ekholm of the Nashville Predators could wind up in Boston or Philadelphia along with several other teams.
Eric Staal has been linked to teams like Florida, Carolina, and Toronto. Mikael Granlund may head to Toronto, Boston, or Carolina. One sees a lot of the same teams because of the limited marketplace.
Kyle Palmieri had been linked to the New York Islanders and even Edmonton but expect more teams to jump in. Brandon Montour linked to Winnipeg or Philadelphia as a secondary option is possible too.