5 New Jersey Devils Players Who Could Help Playoff Teams Now

There are quite a few former New Jersey Devils players currently on the run for a Stanley Cup. The New York Islanders have the most recent Devils, as Lou Lamoriello spent the past two years getting Travis Zajac, Kyle Palmieri, Cory Schneider, and Andy Greene. Others from recent teams include Nikita Gusev on the Florida Panthers, Dmitry Kulikov on the Edmonton Oilers, Blake Coleman on the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Wayne Simmonds on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Since the Devils have been bad over the past few years, they’ve been sending their veteran players to teams who have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

But, what if there was a concept where the Devils could “rent” their best players to teams who needed them? Which teams would need them the most?

What if the Devils could rent its star players to other teams?

The Devils season went terribly, again, but if they could send their best players to get some crucial playoff experience, it would really help. With so many players on the team never getting a taste of playoff action (mostly because they are in their first or second professional year), if the rules allowed, the Devils could let them play for any team for a stretch run to the Cup.

This is obviously just something for fun because there’s no way the NHL would ever allow this, and the Devils probably want their players to rest while they prepare for next season.

Still, it is fun to have an open slate and figure out which teams would benefit best from certain Devils players. It’s very interesting since salary would not be a factor (there is no salary cap in the playoffs) and every Devils player is healthy enough to play right now (some were dealing with some lingering COVID issues at the end of the season, but those have subsided at this point).