New Jersey Devils: Assessing CapFriendly Trades Before Trade Deadline

This one’s a weird one. The New Jersey Devils seem to be getting the better two pieces in this deal, but the point must be the Capitals are looking to save some cap space while also getting a serviceable player who really needs a change of scenery. Honestly, most Devils fans would accept a one-for-one deal which sends Butcher to the Capitals and makes Dillon a Devil. A lot of Devils fans wanted Dillon in the offseason if he made it to free agency.

CapFriendly user CastingCouchGuy must be looking to shed salary now and in the future and taking a chance on a young defenseman who once showed a lot of promise. Dillon seems like a really good defenseman to have on a team with a bunch of stars, but we will definitely take him.

There were other deals with this one, including Jakub Vrana for Rickard Rickell and Luke Glendenning for Richard Panik. It’s definitely a strange deadline for the Capitals, but it makes their whole transition much different. Are they better? Eh. Probably not.

This is a long shot to say the least and definitely the least likely of the five deals here. However, it shows fans of other teams still value Butcher. It shows teams want to give him a shot, and they are willing to give some value for his services. Maybe if the Devils retain some of Butcher’s salary and Dillon would be full salary. So, if Butcher went down to $2 million, it would save them about $1.9 million next year. Still not a good deal for the Caps, but interesting to see the interest people still have in Butcher.