New Jersey Devils Acquire Sami Vatanen for Adam Henrique

New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero came through with another blockbuster deal today trading Adam Henrique, Joseph Blandisi, and a 3rd round pick for Sami Vatanen and a conditional 3rd.

Sami Vatanen is a 26 year old Finnish right shot defender who was a surplus on the Anaheim Duck’s blue line.  They’ve been decimated by injuries and acquiring both Adam Henrique and Joe Blandisi bolsters their team immediately.

Vatanen was injured for the start of the year, but has appeared in 15 games for Anaheim with 1 goal and 3 assists thus far.  The best year of his career was 2015-16 when he posted 9 goals and 29 assists in 71 games for the Ducks.

Vatanen likely slots directly into the Devils top pair, while Steven Santini can slide down into a more fitting 3rd pair role.  Santini had been struggling and now Vatanen has an opportunity to establish himself as a top pair defenseman for the Devils.

Vatanen is signed through 2019-20 at an AAV of 4.875 million.  This deal only adds 875k to the Devils cap as Henrique’s $4 million deal goes to Anaheim.

Who’s out?

This likely means that Ben Lovejoy will see himself as the 7th defenseman with Dalton Prout possibly being waived and sent to Binghamton.  Vatanen should slide into the Devils first pair alongside Andy Greene and could replace Damon Severson on the 2nd PP unit.

With Marcus Johansson recovering from his concussion, it looked likely that Adam Henrique was going to find himself in a 3rd line role.  Essentially, Ray Shero turned a 3rd line winger for the Devils, an AHL player in Blandisi, and a 3rd round pick into a top pair defenseman.

When you evaluate it like that and consider it took Taylor Hall to acquire Adam Larsson, this deal is an absolute steal.  Don’t let Vatanen’s slow start this year fool you either.  He is a great defenseman on a team that was loaded with good young blueliners.

Losing Henrique

This is a tough one.  Henrique had some amazing moments during his time in New Jersey but it was clearly time for both teams to move on.  Outside of one game this year, he hadn’t been very productive and while he was clearly a leader on this team leadership can be found elsewhere.

Next: New Jersey Devils: Pavel Zacha Poised to Breakout

Without a doubt we’ll all continue to root for Rico in Anaheim but this move instantly elevates the Devils in my opinion.  Despite their hot start I still felt this team was missing a piece.  Not anymore.