The New Jersey Devils are going to be selling at the NHL Trade Deadline. That much is clear again. The team is close to the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings, and they have less than a 1% chance to make the playoffs. It’s probably closer to 0% than 1%. They would have to win at a 130-point pace over the second half of the season to make it to 100 points at the end of the season. This team does not have that capability when Jon Gillies and Akira Schmid are the starting goalies. No offense to them, but this team is on its fourth and fifth options in net.
So, Tom Fitzgerald becomes another player at the trade deadline to help the other teams in the league. This isn’t new. The Devils have been sellers at the NHL Trade Deadline for four straight seasons. Over the past three seasons, they traded Taylor Hall, Andy Greene, Blake Coleman, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, Brian Boyle, Sami Vatanen, Wayne Simmonds, Keith Kinkaid, Ben Lovejoy, and Marcus Johansson. That is a lot of veteran talent out the door.
Here’s the difference between this year and previous years. There aren’t really obvious players that the Devils will want to trade. Only four players are unrestricted free agents at the end of the year, and one of them is Gillies. The Devils can’t afford to lose any capable goalies at this point. That means that Tom Fitzgerald will need to get creative this season to make trades happen. He does have six restricted free agents that are finished at the end of the season, and while the Devils still have their rights, they might use that as leverage in a deadline deal. The deadline is March 21st, so the Devils have just under two months to get these players going and build their value.