New Jersey Devils: 5 Moves That Would Unnecessarily Speed Up Rebuild
The New Jersey Devils are terrible. This isn’t anything you don’t know. The Devils just came off of a four-game sweep at the hands of the hated New York Rangers. This season is a mess, and most people are claiming the rebuild is a major failure. The facts are that the Devils are putting out a roster that most teams would get excited about if it was Scott Wheeler’s prospect rankings. Unfortunately, this is the NHL team.
There is hope, of course, but it’s not hope for anything now. The Devils tried to make a couple of moves to make the team better in 2020-21. None of them worked. Trading Joey Anderson for Andreas Johnsson was an abject failure. Trading for Ryan Murray was fine, but it hasn’t moved the needle and he’s had more issues than positives. Corey Crawford never played one minute for the Devils. He retired in the offseason despite getting a $3.9 million contract. Dmitry Kulikov was the only player that really worked, and now he’s on the Edmonton Oilers roster.
None of these moves were really supposed to make the Devils a playoff team. If they were, it was going to be on the backs of young players like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Mackenzie Blackwood. Just like everything this season, it didn’t work out. Hischier missed most of the season with two completely different fluke injuries. Hughes might be the most unlucky offensive player in the NHL. Blackwood has been maddeningly inconsistent.
So, with so many fans desperate for a competitive team, let’s take a look at what the Devils could do to make it happen immediately. This is an exercise that has failed time and time again. This is NOT what the Devils should do. However, it’s an interesting way to look at what the Devils could do. Might they make one or two of the moves in this article? Possibly, but it’s still not likely. There are some terrible contracts, the team would have to lose most of their top prospects and great young players, and they would be mortgaging the future they spent five years building. Still, it’s not impossible to put together a Stanley Cup competitor overnight.
This hurt just to write. The Buffalo Sabres are very likely going to trade Jack Eichel. He’s a legitimate star, but the Sabres just aren’t on a timeline to get something worthwhile out of their star before his no-move clause goes into effect in 2022. This ties the team’s hands. Sabres fans will be quick to point out that he hasn’t officially asked for a trade, but the Sabres also haven’t said they aren’t taking phone calls.
Look around the league. Who could give the Sabres a player with the profile of Jack Hughes? Most teams will try to send a package of picks and prospects. Say the Los Angeles Kings come calling, they could offer Quinton Byfield or Arthur Kaliyev or Alex Turcotte. If the Kings offer all three, then maybe that’s enough for the Sabres to say yes, but none of those players have even close to the future that Jack Hughes might. So, if the Devils offer Hughes straight up, the Sabres might say yes.
Hughes is also going to make a lot less than Eichel’s $10 million salary in his next contract. He’s negotiating against a flat cap and with less traditional production. This gives the Sabres a chance to get a restart with someone with similar upside to Eichel long term.
Will the Sabres ask for more? Of course, but they won’t get it. They have to choose a package of multiple prospects or a package that is literally one great young player. Hughes is still a teenager. He could be great and is right on the cusp already. The Devils could make him part of a competitive unit next season, but Eichel is much better for a team looking to compete now.
The San Jose Sharks went all in when they traded for Erik Karlsson. They sent Chris Tierney, Rudolfs Balcers, Dylan Demelo, and Josh Norris to the Ottawa Senators. It wasn’t the haul most hoped, but the real winner was the 2020 1st-round pick. It ended up being the third-overall pick. The Senators took Tim Stützle, who would be a really nice piece for the Sharks to have right now. The Sharks are still somewhat in the playoff race this season, but Stanley Cup contention is not in their very near future.
The Sharks could get a haul for some of the players on the roster, but Karlsson likely isn’t one of them. He’s due to make $11.5 million against the salary cap for the next six seasons. It’s really an untradeable contract from a player that still has a ton of upside. We’re like two seasons removed from him being the best defenseman in hockey. Obviously, this is a win-now move.
However, the Devils should go for more. Timo Meier is the Sharks’ best asset. He’s 24 years old. He’s owed $6 million against the salary cap for the next two seasons. His production this season isn’t perfect, but he’s easily a 60-point player for the rest of his prime.
To get these two players in a trade, the Devils have to pay handsomely. They will send the Sharks Alexander Holtz, the 1st-round pick they just got in the Kyle Palmieri trade, and defensive prospect Reilly Walsh. It’s a massive payment while also taking on more than $17 million in cap space. In the real world, this trade might cost slightly less, so to make up for it the Sharks will retain $2 million of Karlsson’s salary. Here, the Devils pay a handsome sum to get the defenseman of the present with an offensive weapon that can help them for a long time.
Alex Ovechkin, five years $60 million
Brandon Saad, four years $16 million
Niklas Hjalmarsson, two years $6 million
The New Jersey Devils need to make power moves in free agency this offseason. The one move that makes the most sense for a team trying to go from laughing stock to competitor overnight would be to sign Alexander Ovechkin to whatever he wants. The Devils would be giving him $12 million per season to continue his quest to beat Wayne Gretzky in New Jersey.
Ovechkin changes this offense overnight. More importantly, he changes the dynamic of the power play. The Devils’ power play is awful. However, the Capitals’ power play hasn’t ever really fallen below league average because of how great Ovechkin is with the man advantage. That isn’t going to go away with age, either. He’ll always be able to sit in “his office” and score goals. It’s the move to make the Devils a contender.
Brandon Saad is having a decent season with the Colorado Avalanche, but he never hit the highs that made him a trade piece that sent Artemi Panarin the other way. The Chicago Blackhawks famously lost three trades involving Saad, which is honestly sad. Either way, he’s worth a contract this offseason. He can easily be a 20-goal scorer on a really good second line. Maybe someone offers him more, but it’s hard to tell what free agency will look like this season.
Niklas Hjalmarsson is a defenseman that made sense for the Devils for years, but Arizona never pulled the trigger on a trade. Now, he’s 33 years old and is at the end of his prime. He has a few good seasons left in him, and it would be interesting to see him next to Erik Karlsson.
Re-sign Ryan Murray, two years $4 million
Re-sign Scott Wedgewood, one year $750,000
The Devils are criminally over the salary cap right now. They’ve added more than $46 million in salary without losing one contract that wasn’t entry level, but they still need to find a way to make this work. So, they have to move past the backup goalie position by re-signing Scott Wedgewood, who’s actually been really good at times this season. Most fans would be happy to bring him in as Blackwood’s backup, but they also know that means Blackwood can’t be inconsistent next season.
Ryan Murray has been playing better since he slotted back into the lineup. He’s worth a new contract, which is probably why the Devils didn’t trade him at the trade deadline. There clearly wasn’t a deal that made sense for the Devils, so it makes more sense to sign the asset to a two-year extension. Two years at $4 million total is a pretty significant pay cut for Murray, but he’s probably not going to get much more in the offseason.
These two fill crucial roles lower in the Devils lineup. The backup goalie has been a major issue, which is why the Devils spent big to bring in Corey Crawford this offseason. Wedgewood ended up being a really calming presence back there. Right now, the Devils are weirdly using Aaron Dell as their backup even though Wedgewood has been much better. Murray gives them some really solid defensive play most of the time.
The Devils will pay the Seattle Kraken a 2nd-round pick to take P.K. Subban from the Devils. They will also throw in a young, NHL-ready prospect like Nathan Bastian. This is a deal that will make both teams happy. The Devils have seen Subban improve this season, but at $9 million, it’s too great a pill to swallow. They need to find a team that can take on the final year of his deal, and the Kraken are the perfect team to make that happen.
The Kraken might like Subban anyway. He’s one of the most marketable stars in the NHL. His social media presence might be just what the Kraken needs to gain popularity. He will sell jerseys and get people excited for hockey in Seattle. He will go to all of the events, his charity will have a major presence in the area, and he’s never going to say no to a marketing opportunity. For a team that’s looking for everything from the top down, this is a great move.
Getting that $9 million off the books gives the Devils a chance to make the moves previously explained. There’s no way the Devils can go all in like this when there is that kind of contract on the books. It probably makes a lot more sense to go all in for the 2022-23 season since Subban comes off the books for free, but that’s not the exercise we’re doing right now.
The Devils could compete with Subban the hockey player. If they decide to keep him, they might even be smart to re-sign him to a much, much cheaper deal. However, to compete for something now, they will need to get Seattle to take him.
The Devils will need to figure out a few more cap moves. Will Butcher will likely be bought out, which saves around $2.7 million on the cap. They will probably try to trade Andreas Johnsson to anyone willing to give him a shot. However, even if they can’t, they can manipulate the cap in a way to make it work. Working out contracts for players like Yegor Sharangovich, Michael McLeod, and Janne Kuokkanen will be incredibly complicated, but let’s assume they make them all work. Jonas Siegenthaler will likely be re-signed since the Devils just spent a 3rd-round pick on him, so he should slot in as a sixth or seventh defenseman.
Final Roster
Ovechkin-Eichel-Meier
Saad-Hischier-Bratt
Kuokkanen-Zacha-Sharangovich
Wood-McLeod-Johnsson
Smith-Karlsson
Murray-Severson
Siegenthaler-Hjalmarsson
Blackwood-Wedgewood
This roster is a little underwhelming for all the Devils did to make it work. Spending that much money and not coming out looking like the Lightning is slightly disappointing. However, this is still a perennial playoff team that needs one good run from Blackwood to win the Stanley Cup.
Is it worth it? Absolutely not. The Devils did get to keep some of the future, but they are in such cap hell for the next five seasons that they have no flexibility. Also, there’s too much hope in the bottom six. Can Kuokkanen and Sharangovich keep progressing? Which part of Zacha’s game is real and which part is fake? Can they afford an injury? Will they get anything out of Johnsson?
Next. Special Teams Makes This Season Terrible. dark
It’s interesting to see what’s possible for the Devils, and this team would be a lot of fun, but if the team is patient, they have the potential to make some great moves without breaking the bank for the wrong reasons.