New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Likely On Trade Block Already
The New Jersey Devils season is quickly spiraling out of control. After coming back from a COVID-19 outbreak, they are 3-6-0. They’ve lost six of their last seven games, and head coach Lindy Ruff cannot find a winning lineup. Nico Hischier has another fluke injury after he was hit in the face with a puck off the stick of P.K. Subban. Everything has fallen off the rails.
The Devils have 10 players who are going to be unrestricted free agents on the NHL roster and the taxi squad. It’s clear that this team is going to look wildly different next season. With such a strange season with quarantines and COVID protocols, the Devils would probably be best served to decide now if they can right the ship or if they should start selling assets.
The NHL Trade Deadline is still more than a month away, but the Devils season is pretty close to in the tank. The best decision in the interest of value might be to start looking at trades now. Teams might be more willing to pay for veteran assets when there is two months left in the season. If the Devils traded major players at the deadline, teams wouldn’t only have four weeks with their new assets before the playoffs start.
Trading pieces now also increases the pool of teams thinking they could still contend. 23 teams are currently either in a playoff spot, or within five points of one. It’s a strange year where teams like the Arizona Coyotes aren’t desperate to keep their playoff spot. However, there are still teams that might believe they can make a run.
The Devils know that they have major decisions to make on their upcoming free agents. According to a report from The Fourth Period, the Devils have yet to have contract talks with any of their upcoming free agents. It seems hard to believe they haven’t reached out to at least some of them, but the Devils might just be looking to move on. If that’s the case, moving on now makes a lot more sense. These five players should be the first players being shopped.
Kyle Palmieri
Kyle Palmieri is obviously the most valuable asset among the expiring contracts, even though his value is much lower than it was coming into the season. He’s picked up his play as of late, but he’s still not scoring at a clip that will force teams to spend real assets to acquire.
Even in a strange, pandemic world, Palmieri’s contract is not bad. If he’s traded now, the prorated price for his contract is about $3 million. It might even be a little less. The Devils could even cover $1 million of the deal to help make Palmieri available to more teams.
Palmieri is once again on a scoreless drought. He’s gone five games without a point, which includes hitting John Carlson in the back with mere seconds left on what would have been the game-tying goal. He did have six points in the four games prior, and Palmieri has always been a streaky scorer. Teams who are targeting him know what he is.
What is Palmieri worth? That’s really the million-dollar question at this point. Rumors from last year’s trade deadline were the Devils wanted two 1st-round picks for his services. That price is laughable now. The Devils would be floored if someone actually offered just one 1st-round pick. A team would have to think Palmieri is the best scorer on the market for them to pull off that move, but it probably won’t work out that way.
Nikita Gusev
Speaking of wasted value, Nikita Gusev’s value has to be at its lowest point since he was taken in the 7th round of the 2012 NHL Draft. He’s another player that The Fourth Period says hasn’t started extension talks with the Devils. That’s not surprising after how the season started. Gusev has five points this season. Both of his goals came in the final minutes of play with the game already decided, and he added an assist on Miles Wood goal with 12 seconds left on Tuesday. The team was still losing and the point was basically pointless.
The Devils might be able to convince teams that Gusev’s numbers are on the way up. Technically, he has four points in his last six games. He’s replaced Nico Hischier on his line after he went out with an injury. The Devils are playing him on the “first” line with Pavel Zacha and Jesper Bratt, at least for now.
Gusev is someone who just never seemed to fit on the Devils. He’s clearly talented, but the Devils aren’t using him in a way that works. That seems to be hurting him confidence on the ice, and he hasn’t produced like the team hoped when they traded for the former KHL MVP last season.
These things happen. Gusev was the piece that had this fanbase as excited for this team as ever. The acquisition felt like the “final piece”, but after P.K. Subban didn’t work out and Jack Hughes needed a year to be ready for primetime, the entire team last year was a mess. This is obviously an extremely young team, but Gusev should have fit on paper. He’s struggled on the scoresheet, and he’s making rookie mistakes.
A team will take Gusev. Is he worth a 2nd-round pick to someone? Hopefully, but it’s not entirely likely. Gusev might be better served being traded for a prospect that’s on the cusp. Someone like a Nick Merkley or another prospect that needs a revival.
Ryan Murray
As bad as the values of Palmieri and Gusev have tanked, the Devils have done no favors to the value of one of their top acquisitions of the offseason. Ryan Murray was supposed to be the player to calm down Subban’s game after it went chaotic evil last season. Subban has been better, but he’s still far from good.
Murray seems to be getting a lot of flack for how bad the Devils penalty kill is. Listen, he wasn’t good on the unit, but he’s definitely not deserving of being a healthy scratch. However, the Devils defense is playing better. It’s hard to figure out what this team’s issue is, but sitting good players when they are likely going to be a trade asset doesn’t seem like the best move.
Murray doesn’t have a path back into the lineup as long as Will Butcher is playing well, which he has after being paired with Sami Vatanen. Lindy Ruff doesn’t seem to play his defensemen on their off hand, and the Devils defensemen seem like they aren’t good at it anyway.
Murray was acquired for a 5th-round pick from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the offseason. It seems like the Devils could easily get that back. Despite Murray’s struggles on the penalty kill, that seems to be uniquely an issue on the Devils. Murray has allowed as many total chances on the penalty kill in 12 games as he did last season in 26 games. He’s seen seven high-danger goals against him after only seeing two all last season. Something is off here.
A team will see that, and teams give up 5th-round picks for just about anything. The Devils still have 5th rounders to spend from Keith Kinkaid and Wayne Simmonds trades. Replacing the lost asset is all the Devils will want here.
Dmitry Kulikov
The Devils have Murray, Vatanen, Connor Carrick, Matt Tennyson, and Dmitry Kulikov as defensemen who are on expiring contracts. This is obviously going to be a destination for a team looking to add defensive depth to their roster going into the playoffs. The Devils can’t possibly trade them all away. They still need to roster enough to put out an NHL and AHL lineup.
So, when it comes to trading either Vatanen or Kulikov, we’re leaning Kulikov. Yes, the Devils already trade Vatanen once, but after bringing him back late in the offseason, he’s probably the smarter pick to keep around.
Kulikov has played well above his expectations at times this season. He has a 54.84 CF% at 5v5. That’s seventh on the team. He’s been a serviceable defenseman on the left side. Obviously, he also needs to work on the penalty kill, but at 5v5 he’s been great.
A team will see what he brings to the table and make a move on him. His value all has to do with what other defensemen are available on the market. TSN’s Trade Bait board has six defensemen among the top 15. That includes the top four on the board. Some dominoes need to fall before teams start calling about Kulikov. Since the Devils have multiple defensemen available, teams might be looking to make a smaller move with them if players like Brandon Montour or Mattias Ekholm become too expensive.
Travis Zajac
Travis Zajac has been celebrated by his Devils teammates this season after breaking 1,000 games played. It’s quite the milestone for the lifelong Devil, but that moniker is likely to change this year. He’s watching the twilight of his career wasted on a middling team, and it’s probably best for all parties for Zajac to move on.
The Devils apparently had talks with the New York Islanders last season on a possible Zajac deal, but he used to his no-move clause to stay put. Reports said Zajac would wait until the offseason to make a decision on his future. Obviously, it appears he wanted to play out the final year of his deal in New Jersey.
Zajac has not been good this season, and the Devils are losing with him in the lineup. He has three points in 13 games, and he hasn’t been that defensive dynamo that he’s been in the past. He’s just been below average at aspects of the game he used to excel at.
Maybe Zajac is just going through the motions. Hopefully, Lou Lamoriello still has a soft spot for the last 1st-round pick he made with the Devils that actually worked out for the team (Pavel Zacha notwithstanding). Honestly, the Devils should do right by Zajac.
Next. Binghamton Devils Who Could Play In New Jersey. dark
It’s clear the Devils do not have the tradeable assets they had last year. Nobody is getting them a 1st-round pick and a Nolan Foote-level prospect like Blake Coleman did. The Devils are just lacking talent, and the veterans they did keep fell off the map this season. Teams will still call, but the situation will probably lead to a lot of disappointing deals.