5 Alternatives to Matthew Tkachuk the New Jersey Devils Should Pursue
The New Jersey Devils, spearheaded by GM Tom Fitzgerald, set out once again this offseason to add size and skill, but that hasn’t quite happened yet. The additions of John Marino and Ondrej Palat were solid, but aren’t the type to put the team over the top or into the playoff conversation. The New Jersey Devils swung and missed on Johnny Gaudreau, and then Matthew Tkachuk. What’s next?
New Jersey Devils fans came into the 2022 offseason with sky-high expectations for the young team, which showed signs of real promise during various points of the 2021-2022 season. The team entered the offseason with the #2 overall pick in the 2022 draft to pair with nearly $27m in cap space to use in free agency. After watching the Minnesota Wild trade Kevin Fiala to the Los Angeles Kings, Alex DeBrincat gets dealt to the Ottawa Senators, and then the Devils pass on Shane Wright with the number-two overall pick, Devils fans got really impatient and frustrated really fast.
All hope wasn’t lost, until former Calgary Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau called a last-minute audible and turned tail to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The New Jersey Devils also missed out on other top free agents, such as the Strome brothers, Nino Niederreiter and Andre Burakovsky, and then later lost out on Matthew Tkachuk after Calgary accepted a mind-boggling offer from the Florida Panthers.
The New Jersey Devils generally haven’t swung big on trades, but some of the more recent ones that reach that blockbuster status include the moves for Ilya Kovalchuk and Taylor Hall. Neither player donned the red, black, and white for very long, but each provided their own unique memories in the seasons each player made the playoffs with the team in what was an otherwise very forgettable decade of Devils hockey. Are there still other talented wingers like them that might be available to bring the team back to the playoffs?
William Nylander
The Toronto Maple Leafs enjoyed a rockstar season in 2021-22, only for their Stanley Cup hopes to be derailed in the first round (again) by Cup finals runners-up Tampa Bay Lightning, who fell short of their 3-Peat, ultimately losing to the Colorado Avalanche. Having lost starting goalie Jack Campbell in free agency and replaced him with two enigmas in Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov, the team is under a cap crunch and has more questions than answers when it comes to rounding out the roster.
The Leafs have no problem converting chances and creating offense, but their defensive game has generally left more to be desired. On the other hand, star right wing William Nylander is coming off of a career year, but plays backseat to Mitchell Marner and is slated to make a hair under $7m for the next two seasons. It doesn’t seem likely that the Maple Leafs can afford to give him a raise in 2024 when he’s scheduled to hit the open market, bolstering his status as a trade candidate. He could easily be shopped for defensive reinforcements, a prospect, and picks if the Leafs’ cap nightmare becomes a reality. Oh, and he’s pretty close with the Hughes family.
Jason Robertson
The Dallas Stars turned a few heads in the 2021-22 season by sneaking into the playoffs with their strong defensive play, spearheaded by their young stud goalie Jake Oettinger, who also stood on his head in the playoffs. The Stars were also the only playoff team in the league with a negative goal differential this past season.
Unfortunately, their playoff performance was rather dismal, as they could have easily knocked off the Calgary Flames but relied on their defensive prowess to stumble to a Game 7 loss, only made possible by the performances of Oettinger.
Now, the team faces a cap crisis of its own. Jake Oettinger and Star left wing Jason Robertson are both RFAs looking for lucrative long-term deals, but the team only has $11m in cap space with 6 players making $3m or more on no-move clauses. Generally speaking, it’s harder to find a franchise goalie than a 40-goal winger, but both are extremely essential to a franchise’s success.
If the 6’3 California native Robertson is commanding market value and serious about playing for a winner during his prime years, the Dallas Stars might be behooved to move him for a top prospect and other mid-tier prospects and picks that can develop and earn meaningful time while the Stars wait for some of those bad contracts to expire, all while retaining their franchise netminder.
J.T. Miller & Conor Garland
The Vancouver Canucks were the NHL’s version of Jekyll and Hyde this season; sometimes really good and sometimes really bad. The New Jersey Devils faced both sides and got a good look at two great wingers that might find themselves on the trade block.
The Canucks fell short of the playoffs, and don’t seem to really know if they’re rebuilding or trying to compete while also presently being nearly $3 million over the cap ceiling. J.T. Miller just had an excellent season carrying the load for the team, but he’s a UFA in 2023 and seems to be poised for a hefty raise from his current $5,250,000 salary.
Conor Garland on the other hand has long been a rumored trade target of the New Jersey Devils, but he makes less sense as an option since his contract won’t expire until 2026. For the right price, I don’t think anyone would be against either of these two as trade targets, even if Miller is to command a raise. Miller and Garland aren’t bonafide stars by any means, but their 200-foot game will go a long way to helping a young Devils team that has struggled at times at both ends of the ice.
Vladimir Tarasenko
After winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, the St. Louis Blues endured a bit of bad luck over the last few seasons. Jordan Binnington hasn’t been playing at the caliber he displayed during the cup run, and star Russian right wing Vladimir Tarasenko missed the majority of the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons, leaving the majority of the workload to veteran centers Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn.
2021-22 was different for the Blues, as Tarasenko returned to his elite form and was joined by a surprise supporting cast of young stars Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, who each enjoyed incredible breakout seasons despite their playoff elimination by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche. As a result, the Blues will be facing a cap crunch in short order, with O’Reilly and Tarasenko slated to hit the market in 2023, while Robert Thomas’ extension will raise his salary by over $5m and Jordan Kyrou will be owed a massive pay day of his own.
Assuming Jordan Kyrou is retained, the Blues might only be able to afford to keep one of O’Reilly or Tarasenko. If the answer is the captain O’Reilly, the Blues should look to cash in on whatever value is left of Tarasenko’s expiring deal with the New Jersey Devils in desperate need of a veteran goal-scoring machine.
Timo Meier
The San Jose Sharks wasted no time ushering in a new era of hockey. Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski are now long gone, and newly appointed General Manager Mike Grier just shipped veteran offensive dynamo Brent Burns off to Carolina, and retained salary in the deal. The Sharks will likely be rebuilding for a while, with the roster being completely bare aside from veterans Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic accompanied by young star Timo Meier.
Timo Meier is under team control for a few more years; he has the 2022-23 season left on his current deal, and then becomes an RFA. What doesn’t work in the Sharks’ favor is the fact that he is likely to command a $4m raise – up to $10m annually in total – on top of being stuck with the contracts of the aforementioned veterans. Like Jason Robertson, Timo Meier likely doesn’t want to spend his prime years on a rebuilder with a ton of bad contracts hamstringing the roster.
https://twitter.com/IIHFHockey/status/1528441626086952961?s=20&t=5zoYJibiddFDhnjkor1X0w
Fortunately for the New Jersey Devils, Meier has most of the leverage in this situation, so if he wants out and definitely won’t stay, that should put GM Tom Fitzgerald on high alert. Meier has already developed great chemistry with Nico Hischier on the Swiss national team, on top of taking his game to a new level in the NHL with the Sharks this year at both ends of the ice. If the Devils are serious about making a plug-and-play, instant upgrade, Meier is their guy.