5 Decisions Tom Fitzgerald Must Make After NHL Trade Deadline
By Nick Villano
The NHL Trade Deadline came and went with the New Jersey Devils making one move. They traded Nate Schnarr who they got in the Taylor Hall trade for goalie Andrew Hammond. Hammond isn’t even ready to play right away, but he will allow the Devils to get through the end of the season with two goalies who aren’t at the very beginning of their career. In fact, it might be the last ride for both of them.
The big thing to take away from the trade deadline is the Devils were never that close to anything. Tom Fitzgerald even said he was worried his phone was broken. That’s how quiet things were in Newark this weekend.
Fitzgerald: "I thought Friday, Saturday were real slow (w/ trade talks). I thought my phone was broken. Outgoing calls worked, incoming calls didn't, so I ask people to call back to make sure it was working."
— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) March 21, 2022
A quiet NHL Trade Deadline shows that the New Jersey Devils have work to do in the offseason.
The Devils are in a weird position this offseason. They have to give a ton of money to Jesper Bratt. They have Pavel Zacha whose contract is ending at the end of the season and he becomes a restricted free agent. Jimmy Vesey and P.K. Subban are both unrestricted free agents, and the Devils have to figure out how to put a competitive team together. They have $23 million in cap space, which sounds like a lot, but it’s actually going to get lost pretty quickly with all the pieces they have to re-sign.
There are a lot of decisions to make, and honestly, standing pat at the deadline made that harder. Notice I didn’t say it made it worse. It was likely the right move to stay quiet if nobody was calling on the Devils players, then the value wouldn’t be there to move them now. There will be value eventually, and it could lead to a good offseason in Newark. Yay, we can win the offseason again.