As the calendar flips to February, the New Jersey Devils inch closer and closer to the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline on February 29th.
Now we all know that deadline day is one of most exciting days in hockey. It’s a time when playoff contenders try to gear up by adding the final piece to their Stanley Cup puzzle. It’s also a date when teams bound for the draft-lottery try to make their future brighter by fire selling their veterans to stockpile future draft picks and promising prospects.
Despite the very best efforts of Eklund over at Hockeybuzz and the guys over at MyNHLTradeRumors.com trying to get the inside scoop on all potential trades, you can always count on the NHL Trade Deadline to guarantee fans with at least one shocking trade that comes out of nowhere.
Last year it was the Rangers acquiring Keith Yandle from the Arizona Coyotes for a kings ransom prospect package headlined by Anthony Duclair. The year before that it was the head-scratching deal that sent Ryan Miller to the St.Louis Blues for Jarolslav Halak, Chris Stewart, William Carrier, a 2015 1st-round draft pick and a 2016 conditional 3rd-round draft pick.
This year, the trade deadline will be rather interesting.
As we pick up the second half of the season on Tuesday night, a plethora of teams in both conferences are seemingly still in the playoff hunt, including Ray Shero and the New Jersey Devils.
As of February 2nd, 24 of the 30 NHL teams sit within six points of a guaranteed playoff spot, meaning there will be more buyers on the market at the deadline than we are typically accustomed to.
As is stands, only Lou Lamoriello’s Toronto Maples Leafs as well as the Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, Winnipeg Jets and of course the forever-selling Edmonton Oilers are guaranteed to be selling come February 29th in hopes of securing the first overall draft pick and rights to select the highly touted prospect Auston Matthews.
All that said, the New Jersey Devils find themselves in a rather interesting position. They have undoubtedly been one of the biggest surprises in the entire league this season by staying in the Wild Card race this long, but GM Ray Shero has remained adamant that he will be taking a long-term approach to rebuilding ‘Jersey’s Team.’
This puts the Devils in a position to be both buyers and sellers at the deadline.
Shero has a number of veteran forwards who are all pending unrestricted free agents, including Lee Stempniak, Tuomo Ruutu, Stephen Gionta, Jordin Tootoo, Bobby Farnham, Tyler Kennedy and long-term Devils veteran Patrik Elias. One option for Shero is to trade a couple of these veterans to turn their expiring contracts into draft picks and/or future prospects who can be assets to the Devils down the line.
The other thing to consider is thanks to some hard work this offseason, Ray Shero does have plenty of cap room to play with. Thus, should the right player become available – meaning a young forward who comes with team control, the Devils can certainly make a play to acquire him at the deadline.
Some of the biggest names that are rumored to be available at the deadline include Steven Stamkos, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Eric Staal and Cam Atkinson just to name a few.
Let’s see what Shero can do during his first NHL Trade Deadline with the New Jersey Devils.