Miles Wood
Chances He Gets Traded: 25%
There was some legitimate buzz surrounding Miles Wood this season. He’s been really good. He’s Lindy Ruff’s greatest work in his first year on the bench. He took an asset that was borderline unplayable last season, and turned him into a responsible goal scorer. Wood leads the Devils with 10 goals, and he’s been able to stay out of the penalty box for the most part. He still plays with the necessary edge to keep him contributing at all times, and Ruff found a way to use his speed to his advantage on every shift. He’s even avoided running into the goalie!
That might get teams looking Wood’s way and hoping to acquire his services. He brings a lot to the Devils, and he would be hard to pry from them. However, looking ahead, there’s a chance they lose him for nothing during the Seattle Kraken expansion draft. The Devils might look to get some assets for him now instead of waiting until another team takes him for free.
Wood has another year left on his contract after this year paying him an average of $2.75 million per season. The only issue here is Wood’s actual dollar amount goes up to $3.5 million next season. The Devils could cover some of that contract if the extra $750,000 is a problem for teams in a cash crunch.
This is incredibly unlikely because the Devils will want to try to keep their asset, which includes this offseason during the expansion draft. A team has to come with a really good offer to get the Devils to budge on Wood. He’s very valuable right now, and he’s still only 25 years old. He falls into the age group Fitzgerald said he wants to keep on this team while Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier grow.