New Jersey Devils Make The Right Move Dealing Ty Smith For John Marino

The New Jersey Devils traded defender Ty Smith to the Pittsburgh Penguins for another defenseman in John Marino. Marino is 25 and signed for another 5 seasons at $4.4 million per, so he has a pretty decent cap hit with a lot of term.

Going into next season, the defense looks better. Marino is head and shoulders better than Smith defensively, so this is probably a good trade for the team despite Smith’s potential. Marino has been healthy to start his career, playing 189 games in his first three seasons in the NHL. His offensive numbers aren’t going to jump off the page, but he has put up a respectable 10 goals and 64 points. Devils fans shouldn’t expect big numbers or many goals out of him, but he runs into offense every so often.

Last season he only put the puck in the net once and he will get 0 powerplay time on this team, but that is perfectly fine since this team needs more defensive defenders who don’t make massive mistakes. The Devils have Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson who can get time on the power play, and eventually, Simon Nemec will take over that position when he’s ready.

Smith had one of the worst defensive seasons ever seen by a Devils blueliner and it was going to be interesting to see how he recovered in Pittsburgh. Overall, this has a good chance of being a solid move for the Devils. He could always turn it around and become more like the guy who was fast, smart, and a solid powerplay guy like he was as a rookie but it was clear the organization was pretty done with this defense core when they used four picks in four rounds on the position. In the end, we wish the best for Ty Smith and hope he can succeed in a new market, even if it is a rival team.