New Jersey Devils: 5 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect To Target

For the longest time, we were under the assumption that Kyle Palmieri‘s modified no-trade clause had a big “No Canada” sign written across it. The reasons are obvious. There’s a current pandemic that has the border between the U.S. and Canada mostly closed. Palmieri would have to quarantine for a minimum of seven days after the trade before he could even join the team for a practice. Plus, there’s a good chance Palmieri would have to leave his wife and the rest of his family behind to compete for a Stanley Cup, and that’s before a possible bubble gets put in place. This severely hampers the New Jersey Devils‘ negotiating power.

However, new information shows that one team might be able to convince Palmieri to waive that no-trade clause. The Toronto Maple Leafs are once again suitors for Palmieri, despite previous reports of him blocking trades north of the border. They’ve been left out of previous Palmieri trade pieces, but it appears he they are at least back in consideration a few days before the April 12th deadline.

This would be great news for the Devils, who are dealing with a shorter trade pool as it is. Palmieri might be the most coveted forward on the market despite Taylor Hall being available. More teams seem to be in on the impending free agent because he makes almost half what his former teammate does and he has a better track record of consistency (despite Hall’s ceiling being much higher).

The Devils have a chance to really take a step forward with this trade deadline. They don’t have the centerpiece trade pieces like Hall and Blake Coleman from last season, but Palmieri could bring them a nice piece, and the Maple Leafs have the type of prospects to make a deal extremely desirable. The Devils also have other pieces the Leafs might want, and prospects would be the main point of the conversation. The Leafs probably have the best prospects available, and these five should be on top of the Devils target list.