William Nylander And 5 Other Players New Jersey Devils Could Trade For Today

The New Jersey Devils are in need of a major spark. Being were in the middle of the season, and none of the team’s game-changing prospects are within reach, that can only happen in a trade. There are seven players the team could target that would make a real difference.

Something needs to change with the New Jersey Devils if they want to avoid this massive cycle of going back and forth between exhilarating wins and heart-breaking losses. The Devils are hurt by extreme inconsistency, which has the team playing under .500 hockey.

Since starting the season 4-0, the Devils are 4-9-2. Within that is a 1-6 road trip where they put up a combined score of 34-16. That’s very bad.

The Devils have evened things out since that road trip, but things are still not where they should be. This Devils team was supposed to fight for the playoffs all season long. Right now, they are fighting to keep themselves out of last place in the Eastern Conference.

Ray Shero has been the king of making trades when we least suspect it. That’s how we got Sami Vatanen last season, Taylor Hall the season before, and Kyle Palmieri the season before that. These three players are the core of the Devils future along with Nico Hischier. It is way too early to find a player who could do that, except for one exception we will get to, but there are players that can change the team this season.

The Devils have plenty of prospects they could move. In fact, there are more middle-of-the-pack prospects than they need. High-upside plays like Kevin Rooney, Brett Seney or Nick Lappin could be turned into legitimate NHL talent. So, who should the Devils go after first? Here are six names to watch.

WILLIAM NYLANDER

Let’s get this one out of the way. The Toronto Maple Leafs are fast approaching a deadline to sign the restricted free agent to a new deal. If they don’t sign him by December 1st, William Nylander is forced to sit out the entire season. That’s an impasse we haven’t seen in hockey in a long time.

When you consider Nylander’s age and likely contract demands, that has to come into play when considering a deal. Reports say that Nylander is asking for a deal in the $8 million per season range. Teams are reportedly willing to give him $7 million, and the Leafs offered him $6 million.

While $8 million per season is a lot to stomach, I think the Devils could stomach paying a 22-year-old dynamic winger upwards of $6.5 to $7 million. The Devils only trail the Carolina Hurricanes in cap space. Right now, they could easily fit Nylander in the cap now. Even if the Devils re-sign Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier to massive deals, that should still leave enough money. It would cost a lot, but the Devils have to at least consider it.

GUSTAV NYQUIST

How many more times do I have to bring this up? Gustav Nyquist has needed a change of scenery for years now. He still has that talent in his system that helped him score 28 goals in 57 games back in 2013-14. Yes, that’s now five seasons ago, but last year he showed he could get back his scoring stroke pretty easily.

After hitting rock bottom in 2016-17, where Nyquist only scored 12 goals, he came back with 21 goals last season. This season, he’s off to a slightly slow start when it comes to lighting the lamp, but he’s been good at setting up his linemates.

He has just two goals, but recorded 13 assists early in this season. Those numbers won’t jump out at anyone, but Nyquist will fill some of the Devils most glaring needs. He provides them a middle six winger who can score consistently when he’s right. He would vastly upgrade the Devils second power play unit, even if most of his goals came at 5v5 last season. He could immediately go on a line with either Pavel Zacha and Jesper Bratt or Travis Zajac and Joey Anderson. That line would immediately see a major upgrade.

Nyquist is a free agent at the end of the season. That works for the Devils in two ways. For one, if he doesn’t work out they can move on with no issues. If he comes here, and the 2017 version of Nyquist shows up, then he is an issue for a few months. If the young, vibrant Nyquist shows up they can try to re-sign him. Also, that makes his price fall completely. He won’t cost nearly as much as the other players on this list.

PHIL KESSEL

This one is a little outside the box, but hear me out. Phil Kessel is clearly a much better contributing forward than he is a star player. The Devils don’t need a star player. They have Taylor Hall. Kessel doesn’t even have to play on the top line. The Devils could sorely use him to pot in goals from passes the come from Pavel Zacha or Marcus Johansson.

The Pittsburgh Penguins need to make changes. They already made some moves, trading away Carl Hagelin for Tanner Pearson. This allows the Penguins to get younger, even if they are giving away some speed in the process.

This trade would obviously change the look of the Penguins, but that seems to be what they need. They could get a couple of the Devils prospects that are just about NHL ready, put them on a team with two of the best players on the planet, and watch them flourish.

The Penguins are currently last place in the Eastern Conference. They could use a pretty large overhaul. Kessel still has four more years, paying him $8 million per season. However, the Maple Leafs are currently paying $1.6 million of that contract. If the Penguins retain $1.4 million of that salary, then his pay becomes a much more manageable $5 million per season. Sure, that’s a long commitment to Kessel, but he could be the piece the Devils are missing.

NINO NIEDERREITER

Nino Niederreiter is a player we had pegged for the Devils to go after in the offseason. He’s one year into a very friendly contract, and the Wild have been pretty good to start the year. This one would be a hard one to get the Wild to do, but there may be a way to get Niederreiter off their books.

There is no clauses about trades in Niederreiter’s contract. He can get to 20 goals in his sleep as long as he is healthy. He would be the secondary scorer the Devils really need. He basically gives the Devils all the production that Nyquist would have, but he’s three years younger, and signed for much longer at a reasonable price.

Niederreiter is not having a good start to his season. He’s on pace for eight goals over an 82-game pace. Despite the rest of the Wild coming on strong, Niederreiter just hasn’t played up to their standards. That doesn’t mean the Wild wouldn’t budge, but it might cost the Devils someone who’s actually on the roster.

The Devils could also play a trump card. There’s a well known former Devils player, currently on the Wild roster, that’s thought of as the worst contract in the league. The Devils could agree to talk on a little more than half of Zach Parise‘s contract, and Niederreiter could be a sweetener. The Devils would also have to give up some pretty good prospects or roster players, but the Parise contract might not be as bad as it looks. Parise comes with a $7.54 cap hit every season, but he only makes big money for four more seasons. After that, he will likely take his bad back out to pasture, and he will be on long-term IR. Sure, it’s a bad way to plan ahead, but every team has done it.

This is not the first deal I would do, but it is an option that is out there.

JAKOB SILFVERBERG

The New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks have traded in the past to very good results for both teams. The Devils have Kyle Palmieri and Sami Vatanen thanks to the Ducks. Meanwhile, the Ducks have Adam Henrique and used their second-round pick to acquire Carl Hagelin, which eventually turned into David Perron.

It may be time for these two teams to make a deal again. Jakob Silfverberg was the key piece that sent Bobby Ryan to the Ottawa Senators. The Ducks won that deal outright no matter who they got, because they aren’t stuck with Ryan’s contract.

The Devils already have Stefan Noesen, who was another piece in that deal. They claimed him off waivers two season ago. Might as well call the Ducks about another piece. The Ducks are really struggling to score, and Silfverberg has been hurt to start the season. The Ducks are currently 30th in the league in scoring. Somehow, thanks specifically to the services of John Gibson, the Ducks are still in the playoff race. Losing Silfverberg would hurt, but he’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

The Ducks need an offensive spark. The Devils have some players who could provide that. We won’t go in armchair GM, but a deal might work out well for both teams. When these two teams come to the table, they usually do.