New Jersey Devils: Grading Trade Deadline Deals

The New Jersey Devils are sellers this season, and we’re here to review each trade they made during the NHL Trade Deadline, giving each a grade.

It has obviously been a very tough season for the New Jersey Devils. It was a season that had expectations to get back into the playoffs after a return to the postseason in 2018. Well, some injuries and bad luck have led them to be way out of the race come trade deadline, so they were forced to make some trades.

Some trades were seen as necessary because of the fact that the Devils will not be in the playoffs and can get assets for guys who are on expiring contracts.

Some of the trades began to come in weeks before the actual deadline on February 25th. This allowed the team to start to look at their young players and look forward to next season. They also had some pieces move out that can help some true contenders make deep playoff runs.

Some of these guys that were sent out were very good Devils. There should be nothing but love and respect from fans for most of them. Anyone that wears the red and black and represents it well should be respected. It is no one particular player’s fault that the season went like this, it was just a flawed roster with some unlucky situations.

After this season, it will be mostly about young players. The organization is loaded with them and they also have tons of money in cap space ready to spend. There is no reason to think that the future of the team is bright. There will always be growing pains but everyone should have a positive outlook for the most part.

In this, we will have a grade for every trade the New Jersey Devils have made during the trade season. Some of them were better than others, but there is no doubt that the future of the organization was kept in mind while making them.

1. Brian Boyle for 2nd Round Pick

This trade gets an A-. This move is something that hit home for the New Jersey Devils and their fans. They traded one of the most popular players on the roster. Brian Boyle went to the Nashville Predators in exchange for a second-round pick.  If you are looking at it from a pure hockey point of view, it is a great trade. It would get an A instead of an A- if it wasn’t such a beloved player.

In a short time with the organization, he had an impact that is like no other player has had and it will never be forgotten. He was diagnosed with cancer during his first training camp with the team and nothing was really the same since.

The team and the community that follows the team came together and helped Brian get through it and made it easy for him to come in and play hockey once he was medically cleared. It was inspiring to all to see him get back at it and be such an impactful player in such a limited on-ice role.

He is a 4th-line player on most teams. Albeit a top-level 4th liner, still a 4th liner nonetheless. That is why getting a 2nd-round draft pick for him is really cool. Brian Boyle was an all star in 2018 as an injury replacement for Taylor Hall, and that can be blamed on his story on top of having a good season for the Devils.

In 116 games with the Devils over a season and a half, he had 26 goals and 16 assists for 42 points. That is excellent offensive production from a guy who is supposedly a 4th-line center.

Now, it is up to the Devils management and scouting staff to do something with this 2nd-round pick that will likely be in the later third of the second round because Nashville is that good.

2. Michael Kapla for Ryan Murphy

This trade of Michael Kapla for Ryan Murphy gets a C+. It is more of a depth AHL trade. This isn’t really a move that changes the way each franchise will be moving forward. Neither guy will make a significant impact on their new team going forward.

When Michael Kapla got to the Minnesota Wild, he was sent to their American Hockey League affiliate Iowa Wild. As for Ryan Murphy, he has spent some time in the AHL as well. He only has three games played in the NHL this season, and just one with the New Jersey Devils. In those three games, he has collected one assist and is a +1.

This trade might have a different grade when you evaluate it a few years from now, but for now, it is a middle of the pack type trade. Murphy might be a cheap third-pair shutdown type defensemen in the future.

You have seen what the Devils have been able to do with Mirco Mueller, who was a former first-round pick that just was buried in his former organization and you can only hope that Murphy can turn out similar.

Meanwhile, the league is moving away from guys like Kapla and the Devils are already a team with a plethora of organizational depth at forward and not enough on defense.

The main focus of the trade might have been position scarcity for that reason. The Devils are obviously soft on defense organizationally and adding Murphy is why this trade gets a C+.

The Devils are hoping that their young defenseman lead the way in the future and that Murphy will make it difficult for management to keep him out, or they could use him as a trade chip again moving forward for a team looking for depth.

3. Ben Lovejoy for Connor Carrick and 3rd

This trade gets an A+. This is a fantastic trade for the New Jersey Devils. Ben Lovejoy is a bottom pair defenseman who is very valuable because of what he contributes to a team off the ice more than on the ice.

They got more in return from him than anyone would have ever expected. They acquired Connor Carrick and a third-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft from the Dallas Stars in exchange for Lovejoy. Lovejoy was often critiqued on his play but this sort of return is very nice for a guy like that.

Carrick is a guy who can come in and get more of a chance with the Devils than any other team he has given him in previous stints. He won the Calder Cup, the Championship of the American Hockey League, with the Toronto Marlies in 2018.

He has some offensive upside as well. In a short career so far he has 10 goals and 24 assists for 34 points in 181 career games. He will look to get over the hump and become an NHL regular full time, and at age 24 he has plenty of time.

They say don’t judge a defenseman until he has 200 games played as they sometimes take a bit longer to develop than a skill forward. This seems to be the case for Carrick as he will have an opportunity in New Jersey. The Dallas Stars are a bubble team in the West, so the 3rd-round pick could be somewhere in the middle of the round. This was a great trade for New Jersey.

4. Keith Kinkaid for a 5th Round Pick

This trade gets a B-. Keith Kinkaid was shipped off to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for a 5th-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. This is the type of trade that the Devils made in order to pave the way for the future.

Keith Kinkaid was on an expiring contract and with Cory Schneider being signed long term and MacKenzie Blackwood on the come up, it was pretty obvious what needed to be done. Kinkaid was the odd man out.

Keith Kinkaid, along with Taylor Hall, were the main reasons that the New Jersey Devils made it to the playoffs last season. It was very important for them to make it so some of the young players can get some postseason experience. Without Keith, that probably doesn’t happen.

The reason this grade is a B- instead of something higher, is because of the fact that Keith didn’t play nearly as well this season and earn the team something even better than a 5th in return.

As for Keith moving forward, he will be the 3rd goalie on the active roster in Columbus. He is going to have to fight for some playing time down the stretch and is probably just injury insurance heading into the playoffs.

With the stats that Keith had, they are lucky that they found someone to take him at all instead of keeping him for nothing and him walking on July 1st. He might have to build it back up to his reputation last season after a down year this year, but someone may see that he could be a starter or at very least a good backup.

That 5th round pick is something that could be used to draft a player and hopefully, the management staff can find a late round gem when it eventually comes, or they could use it as a chip in another trade at some point.