New Jersey Devils: 5 Kyle Palmieri Trades We’d Love To See
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils are sitting Kyle Palmieri despite him being healthy. He’s not struggling on the ice. In fact, he’s been one of the best players on the ice over the past few weeks. However, the Devils are making him a healthy scratch for quote “precautionary reasons”.
We’ve been here before. The Devils started sitting Taylor Hall for precautionary reasons last season, and he was traded days later to the Arizona Coyotes for a big package of picks and prospects. The hope here is the Devils do the same thing with Palmieri. It’s clear the last-ditch effort to get him to agree to a contract extension went terribly. It usually doesn’t work out unless the team comes with a Godfather offer like the New York Rangers did with Chris Kreider. So, a trade seems imminent.
How can the New Jersey Devils win a Kyle Palmieri deal?
The Devils still have needs not only on the team but along the prospect pool. There are a lot of decent defensive prospects in Kevin Bahl, Nikita Okhotyuk, Reilly Walsh, and Michael Vukojevic, but none of them are considered top prospects. They could all make the NHL one day, but seeing one of them as a top-line defenseman seems unlikely.
Maybe the Devils take a flier on a high-upside defensive prospect that could jump into a top-line role. There are needs at the wing with Palmieri likely gone that the Devils could fill. Palmieri seems like the first domino to fall, and the Devils clearly think they are close to a deal, so let’s take a look at some of the best possible deals the Devils can make. We will attempt to be realistic and stay within the salary cap thanks to CapFriendly’s trade machine tool.
Unfortunately, the Devils aren’t getting Noah Dobson or Oliver Wahlstrom in these deals. There are some good team fits and others that might not really hit what the Devils need. The Boston Bruins aren’t on this list since the only good deal to be had (unless you’re a big Jake DeBrusk fan) can be seen here. The Devils will do well when they finally pull the trigger on a Palmieri trade sometime within the next week.