The New Jersey Devils have been quiet for most of NHL Trade Deadline day, but a few minutes before the trade deadline they made a minor move to add to the goaltending position. They send AHL forward Nate Schnarr to the Montreal Canadiens for goalie Andrew Hammond. It’s an underwhelming move that isn’t going to move the needle. It’s likely a move to just get the Devils to the end of the season and get Nico Daws down to the Utica Comets.
The Devils goaltending situation is the worst in the league. We can say that with confidence. Mackenzie Blackwood, Akira Schmid, and Jon Gillies are all in the bottom 11 players in goals saved above average at 5v5. That stat comes from Natural Stat Trick. Andrew Hammond has a positive GSAA and he immediately leads the Devils in the stat despite playing just four games this season.
This is clearly a stopgap move. The question is if the Devils spent too much. Listen, Nate Schnarr was never going to light the world on fire. However, it was nice to see his projection this year. Schnarr has 26 points this season (13 goals and 13 assists) in 43 games for the Utica Comets. That’s up from 15 points in 33 games last season for the Binghamton Devils.
Schnarr ranked 16th in our Top 25 prospects piece from a few weeks ago. He worked his way higher on the list. The Devils got him as an extra prospect in the Taylor Hall trade. It was a flier when they got him, and we’d argue he got close to his ceiling at this point. To turn that into roughly 10 games of a goalie is an interesting move by Tom Fitzgerald.
Hammond was on the trade block for since showing up in the NHL for the Canadiens earlier this season. Since then, he’s been working his way back from injury. He actually hasn’t played in the NHL for four seasons prior to this year. He had that miraculous run with the Ottawa Senators when he was nicknamed “The Hamburgler”, but that was back in 2015. He’s been mostly an AHL goalie since then.
Again, this is a stopgap move to get the Devils through the last 20 games of the season. The Devils most stood pat at the NHL Trade Deadline, so they will need to make more moves in the offseason. It’s going to be interesting, but Hammond comes to the Devils in a move to likely allow Daws to play in the AHL playoffs.