New Jersey Devils: 5 Winger Trade Options Not Named Vladimir Tarasenko
The New Jersey Devils are going hunting for winger options, and they are big-game hunting at that. The prevailing thought is they are one of the front runners for Vladimir Tarasenko. The St. Louis Blues winger wants out of his only NHL home, and the Blues sound willing to make it happen. However, willing is a relative term. The Blues reportedly have a high price on Tarasenko. It might be in the Devils’ best interest to look elsewhere. Unless the Devils can get Tarasenko on a return that everyone can work with, it’s time to move on.
There are other options the Devils could target. Tarasenko at his peak might not even be the best option. There are some intriguing trade options around the league.
Two other players who won’t be on this list are the San Jose Sharks’ Timo Meier and the Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau. Don’t get us wrong, both players would be perfect additions for what the Devils are looking for, but there have been specific reports that both are no longer available if they ever were. It’s unfortunate because those two players would make the most sense in a trade.
This shouldn’t be too upsetting. There are plenty of really good players available to pair with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. The Devils really need another winger. The situation isn’t exactly dire. However, if they don’t make a move, they will be a little too reliant on young players in the bottom six. Say the Devils keep last year’s top six which looked like this:
Janne Kuokkanen-Jack Hughes-Yegor Sharangovich
Pavel Zacha-Nico Hischier-Jesper Bratt.
That’s a fine top six, but unless HIschier and Hughes take a massive step forward, it’s still in the bottom ten in the league. That also forces them to rely on four of Jesper Boqvist, Tyce Thompson, Marian Studenic, Dawson Mercer, Alexander Holtz, Nolan Foote, Andreas Johnsson, and Graeme Clarke in the bottom six. That’s not exactly a desirable situation to be in. So, the Devils should shoot for one of these five names if a Tarasenko deal can’t work.
Filip Forsberg
This one has been mentioned a lot. The Nashville Predators were reportedly looking for a massive package to get Filip Forsberg. After making multiple trades this offseason, including moving Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson, the Predators might not want to move another piece in Forsberg, but for the right price, it could make a lot of sense.
Forsberg is going to be 27 years old when the season starts, and he falls into the older end of the Devils target forward, but it’s clear that this age range is fine after the Devils made moves for Dougie Hamilton and Ryan Graves. The Devils kept things young for a long time so they could afford to make moves like the one for Forsberg.
The Devils were able to fix the defense without spending an asset like their 1st-round pick, Holtz, Mercer, or any of their defensive prospect depth. The Predators are looking to get younger and to build through the draft.
Forsberg is going to be an unrestricted free agent after this offseason, so if the Devils are spending big assets to get Forsberg they need to sign him to a long-term deal. They can’t give up a 1st-round pick in a massive draft like this one if he’s going to just walk away for nothing. Maybe the Devils put some protection on the pick, but then if they fall in the top ten it would move the pick to 2023 which might be an even more talented draft class.
Forsberg would be a player that can transform this forward group immediately. If the Devils could add him for the next half a decade, then he could watch as the young players grow around him. Forsberg has struggled to stay healthy the past four years, although he’s avoided major injuries. Maybe that could truncate his value and the Devils could get away with a prospect-heavy deal.
Rickard Rakell
It seems like the trade market for the Anaheim Ducks’ Rickard Rakell just dried up when they decided to keep him at the NHL Trade Deadline. Nobody hit the Ducks asking price for Rakell, so they kept him during a dead-end season for the franchise. Should they have just sent him to the highest bidder and call it a day? If he doesn’t go anywhere now, it could be considered the wrong move in the long run.
Rakell is three years removed from his absolute breakout season when he had 69 points in 77 games. He immediately fell back to 43 points the next season, and he’s been in the 45-50 point range ever since. Obviously, that’s not something the Devils should overspend for, but if the Ducks have a more reasonable trade demand, it could work.
Rakell is also a free agent at the end of the season, but the Devils should look to add draft compensation for re-signing him over just making him a priority right off the bat. The Devils shouldn’t go into this deal expecting him to be the long-term fix unless he proves he can hit the numbers he had earlier in his career.
Because of how the Devils are looking at this deal, they need to temper expectations in terms of the trade package to the Ducks. If Anaheim demands a 1st-round pick, then the Devils should look elsewhere. If they must have someone like Holtz, Mercer, or even Reilly Walsh, the Devils could get a better deal in other places.
Tyler Bertuzzi
Tyler Bertuzzi is an underrated trade target for the Devils. The real prize would be to spend to the moon for Dylan Larkin, but he’s the team’s captain and Steve Yzerman probably doesn’t want to start from scratch again despite the fact they are a few years away still. So, the Devils could ask about the next best thing.
Tyler Bertuzzi is still just 26 years old, so he’s right in the age range the Devils want to match with Hughes and Hischier. Unlike the other two options on the list so far, he has two years left on his deal. He’s reportedly available, and the Toronto Maple Leafs have been rumored as a target location. He literally just agreed to a two-year deal with the Red Wings, but that hasn’t stopped teams from making trades in the past.
Bertuzzi is working with two straight 20-goal seasons before last season’s injury-riddled year. He only played nine games last season, but he scored five goals in those nine games. He has been really good when considering how bad these Red Wings teams have been. It doesn’t matter his supporting cast, he has been improving every year.
Bertuzzi is coming off back surgery, but reports say he is feeling much better and is already back on the ice. If the Devils can confirm his medicals, then he’d be a perfect addition to this team. He might even have even higher to go in his development. Last year, he looked like a different player to start the season. If he can unlock that again, he could become a 30-goal scorer.
Patrik Laine
Sigh. Here we go again. The pipe dream that is Patrik Laine to the New Jersey Devils will never go away until he signs a long-term deal with someone. He’s currently on the last year of his deal, but he is only set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.
Laine is a pure scorer. That’s really it. He can score unlike anyone else in the league, but his defensive metrics are very bad and he needs to show effort on the other end of the ice. This might frustrate some coaches, but Lindy Ruff’s system doesn’t have a ton of time for pure defensive metrics. It moves so fast that players just end up making plays. That’s how Hughes ended up leading the league in takeaways last season. It’s the type of offensive and defensive system that thrives off opportunity.
Laine knows what to do with an opportunity when he gets it. However, there’s been something that’s off the past two seasons. After being a perennial 30-goal scorer, he didn’t come close to even hitting that pace the past two seasons. He only had 10 goals in 45 games after he was traded to Columbus last year.
So, someone with an affinity for scoring and nothing else isn’t scoring anymore. That is scary, but he’s been clearly unhappy in his situations. He wanted to get out of Winnipeg, but when he finally did, he got stuck with John Tortorella. The Devils could be his saving grace, even if he got away from Tortorella this upcoming season.
Ondrej Palat
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost a lot from its back-to-back Stanley Cup winner this offseason. Blake Coleman left in free agency. Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Johnson, and Mitchell Stephens were lost in trades. Yanni Gourde was taken by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. That is a lot of talent to lose from the middle six. Yet, despite that, the team still has work to do to make the salary cap work.
They signed Corey Perry, Zach Bogosian, Taylor Raddysh, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Brian Elliott this offseason. The Lightning are sitting right at the cap with all these moves and putting Brent Seabrook on LTIR. They don’t HAVE to make a move, but it would really help things.
Ondrej Palat is in the last year of his deal paying him an average of $5.3 million per season. He has been a great secondary scorer for the Tampa Bay Lightning who also does all the little things right. This is the type of player the Devils have targeted in the past.
Palat might do some really good things with a top-six role that he never got in Tampa. He’s a former 20-goal scorer, and he is incredibly clutch. He had six game-winning goals last season. Maybe if the Devils pair him with Hischier, those two would have instant chemistry. The only issue is he’s 30 years old, so the Devils are trading for him when the decline in his game is coming soon. Is it this year? Probably not, but it could be within four years, and if the Devils are making this trade they probably want to re-sign him.
Next. 3 Acceptable Vladimir Tarasenko Trades. dark
Palat also has a no-trade clause. That could also make this complicated. This probably doesn’t completely fix the situation as a healthy Tarasenko would, but it would definitely be an upgrade that doesn’t force the Devils to rely on an incredibly young top six.