With a new general manager at the helm in the form of Tom Fitzgerald, the NHL trade deadline is close at hand, and the teams finding themselves out of playoff contention again. The New Jersey Devils will be looking to make big moves to shore up the holes in their roster and get back to being competitive again.
A team reshuffle and the promotion of new blood is exactly what the New Jersey Devils need right now, with the first-round draft picks like the incredibly talented Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes giving the team the offensive teeth they need, and rookie goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood keeping up his fantastic defensive from, to overcome the 751/1 odd that Betway gives them of winning the Eastern Conference.
In this article, we’ll be looking at who’s staying who’s going and what moves the Devils have left that could get the team restarted.
Going
The most likely leavers are probably Wayne Simmonds and Sami Vatanen.
There is a good chance that trading Simmonds could result in an additional draft pick to shore up their 2020 total of two-round one draft picks, two round four draft picks, and one each in round five and seven. He has also been strongly linked with a move to the Vancouver Canucks.
Vatanen, on the other hand, is more up in the air. The defenseman is currently on injured reserve for the Devils but is attracting a lot of attention from other teams. He has even risen to the number two spot on the TSN trade bait board.
The flip side of this is that there is an equal likelihood that the Devils will look to retain Vatanen. Their defence is still very shaky, and there is not a glut of capable defensemen coming onto the market that could replace Vatanen.
The Devils have enough of a salary cap to offer him a competitive package, and, as it stands, they will need more than just Ty Smith to shore up their back end.
Staying
Both Andy Greene and Travis Zajac had indicated that they don’t wish to leave the Devils, and both have no-trade clauses in their contracts, but both had reportedly been in talks with Fitzgerald about their future.
However, on Sunday, 15 year Devils veteran Greene was traded for defenseman David Quenneville and 2021 second-round draft pick. According to New Jersey.com, one of the major factors in Greene finally leaving the devils after 923 games was the presence of Lou Lamoriello as the GM of the New York Islanders.
Lamoriello signed Greene to the Devils as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Lamoriello has an existing relationship with Travis Zajac, who he also signed to the Devils during his time there, which, despite Zajac’s instance that he wants to stay with the Devils, makes the situation harder to predict.
That being said, Sportsnet has reported that Kurt Overhardt, who represents Zajac, had confirmed he had received an offer but had declined it using his no-trade clause.
Blake Coleman was also thought to be staying with the Devils, but Zajac’s second line teammate was traded to Tampa Bay for Nolan Foote and an additional first-round pick. The absence of Greene and Coleman makes it more likely that Zajac will look to move on from the Devils.
A New Era for the Devils
There is no doubt that new Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is trying to rebuild the Devils by wrapping young talent around the core of Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes and the trading of Devils veterans like Blake Coleman, Andy Greene, (and potentially Wayne Simmonds and Sami Vatanen is) a good indicator of his commitment to that idea.
Done well, this could be a whole new era for the team. Done badly, the lack of veteran experience brought by old hands like Greene and Vatanen could make it difficult to weld this new team together.
