New Jersey Devils: Preseason Trade Could Be In The Cards
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils decided to stand pat this offseason, opting for in-house options over free agents or trades to upgrade the team. If things don’t work out quickly, the team can make moves before the season even starts.
The New Jersey Devils are going into this season relying on youth, again. After giving big roles last season to Nico Hischier, Pavel Zacha, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher and Miles Wood, this season it looks like a collection of Joey Anderson, John Quenneville, Michael McLeod or Nick Lappin will play their own role.
Here’s the thing about relying on players that are under 25 years old, there’s no way to predict how they will react to the NHL. Sometimes, a player is immediately comfortable with the big leagues. Other times, they fall on their face.
The team will use the preseason to evaluate who is ready to make that jump, but there is the slight possibility that it’s nobody. It is a long shot, but Anderson, McLeod and the rest of the young, skilled players could all need an extra year to fill those spots on the NHL roster.
If during the evaluation period, the Devils don’t like what they see, a trade is extremely possible.
Trades during the preseason aren’t as common as they are in the NFL, but they do happen. The Devils have even been a part of them in the past. The last time they did was sending Krys Barch back to the Florida Panthers prior to the 2013-14 season.
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While these trades did not happen in the Ray Shero era, this GM has been known to break from tradition.
Don’t expect something out of this world to go down, but Shero could look to make a move to keep the Devils afloat this season. While Shero can find those players on PTOs, there are obviously much better players available in trade.
Some may think that a team won’t want to give up a good player right before the season, but it’s more than that. Sometimes a young player steps up a year earlier than expected. Think like Jesper Bratt’s situation. Or, a player just doesn’t fit a new system or coach’s philosophy.
Shero is known to take advantage of these situations. He could easily do it again before the games start to count. If the “rely on young players” strategy doesn’t work two season in a row, there is an escape plan.