New Jersey Devils: 5 Trade Rentals That Might Actually Be Worth It
The New Jersey Devils are looking to make a splash this season. After surprisingly playing themselves into a solid second place, the Devils are now one of the biggest players at the NHL Trade Deadline. The prevailing focus is on Timo Meier. Especially with Bo Horvat already going to the New York Islanders, Meier is the biggest piece likely to move.
With so much competition for Meier, and the Devils having pieces that might be a little too enticing for Sharks GM Mike Grier to accept anything less (Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes at the top of that list), the Devils may have to look at who’s next on the list. Tom Fitzgerald said he has little interest in going after a pure rental, but there are some players heading for unrestricted free agency that make a lot of sense for the Devils now.
There are three reasons a young team like the Devils make sense to make a trade for a rental. The first reason is experience. This team is early in its run of contention (hopefully), but if the goal is truly to win a championship eventually, they need to find a way to get proper experience in the playoffs. They are heading into a likely matchup with the New York Rangers in the first round. They went to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. To beat them, they need that experience.
The other two reasons are price and availability of prospects. The Devils have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL. It’s not only top heavy (Nemec, Hughes, Alex Holtz, Arseni Gritsyuk), but it has incredible depth (Shakir Mukhamadullin, Josh Filmon, Graeme Clarke, Nolan Foote, Tyce Thompson, Topas Vilen, etc., etc.). Eventually, the Devils will have a logjam in the NHL. They won’t have room to fit every NHL-ready prospect. Why not use that capital now to acquire an NHL guy?
Also, the price for a rental is going to be much less than it would be for a guy like Meier. The Devils could even keep their first-round pick to continue to bolster their prospect pool or make a draft-day trade. So, with all that said, who are the rentals that make the most sense? Let’s start with a player we’ve mentioned many times before.
Vladimir Tarasenko
It’s been almost two full years since Vladimir Tarasenko asked out of the St. Louis Blues organization. To his credit, he’s been incredibly patient, but that patience is also clearly wearing thin. Tarasenko hasn’t looked like the same guy, despite making yet another All-Star Game this season.
His advanced stats are pretty terrible despite having decent counting stats. His CF% (basically the number of chances allowed against the number of chances taken) is 16th on the team. This is a bad team, by the way. He’s 15th in high-danger chances taken at 5v5. Despite this, he still has 29 points in 38 games. While that isn’t crazy good, it’s definitely good enough from a guy who’s clearly trying to play his way out of St. Louis.
The question becomes, “Can Tarasenko turn it back on?”. We think he can. He had 34 goals in 75 games last season. He was trying to prove to other teams he was worth the price of acquisition. He finished with more than a point per game, and that kind of production very rarely disappears overnight.
The Blues have a busy trade deadline coming up. They need to make a decision on Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly, Pavel Buchnevich, Ivan Barbashev, Noel Acciari, and Thomas Greiss. That’s a lot of rentals that Doug Armstrong must address. The Devils have the right prospects to help the Blues reset, and it probably wouldn’t cost the Devils more than a middle-tier prospect and a second or third-round pick.
Sean Monahan – Montreal Canadiens
We already regret putting someone from the Montreal Canadiens on the list because it will somehow lead to a million “ask for Nemec and a first for Monahan” tweets. Still, in reality, it’s worth talking about. Sean Monahan was pretty bad last season, but he found his game again in Montreal.
Monahan had 17 points in 25 games before he injured his foot after he was hit with a puck. He’s been injured for the past three seasons, but at least this was a fluke injury. When his foot fully heals, the expectations is he can be back to normal.
Right now, Monahan’s trade value has to be low. He was playing well, but he hasn’t played since early December. The Devils could take a chance on Monahan. The way he plays the game feels a lot like what Lindy Ruff was trying to do with Erik Haula. Monahan won 59% of his faceoffs this season. On top of that, he’s a known scorer.
Nobody will like to hear that Monahan is the player the Devils acquire to put next to Jack Hughes, but the Devils value possession. Monahan can get them possession, and he has a much better finishing touch than Haula. Fitzgerald shouldn’t pay the asking price for Monahan, but if he can get him for a simple draft pick and a cap dump, then it makes sense. This is a Canadiens team that already got a first-round pick just for taking on Monahan’s contract.
Max Domi – Chicago Blackhawks
Max Domi’s name has come up before. Jonathan Bailey did a rental piece back in December. The priorities have changed a little bit, but the goal has not. The Devils want to play winning hockey from now and through the playoffs. To do that, they need to adjust to any type of play. This fast and agile Devils team needs to react when a team tries to grind it into the ice.
Max Domi is that “grinder” type player. He hasn’t found a home after a ton of hype coming into the league. He started with the Arizona Coyotes before he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Alex Galchenyuk. Then, he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Josh Anderson. Last season, he was basically dumped to the Carolina Hurricanes before he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks this past offseason.
This season, Domi has been decent. He has 35 points in 48 games. He’s on pace for 60 points this season, which would be huge for the depth of the Devils. On top of that, he plays the type of hard-nosed game the Devils were hoping they’d get from Miles Wood.
It’s really hard to decipher a price for Domi. The Blackhawks are also trying to trade franchise cornerstones Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, who both might also be on the Devils radar if they can make the salaries work. However, Domi feels like the best fit.
Nick Ritchie – Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes are steeped in the rebuild, not only of the franchise but of their location, stadium, etc. They are willing to trade just about anyone not named Logan Cooley. It would be an interesting conversation to make about Clayton Keller, but for now, let’s focus on the rental at forward. Nick Ritchie is actually having a decent season when considering who he’s playing with.
He has just 10 power play points, but that’s second on the Coyotes to Keller’s 11. He’s tied for the team lead in goals with the man advantage with four.
He’s doing alright there, but he struggles at 5v5. He has just 11 points there, ninth on the team. Clearly, the Devils could provide Ritchie with a better line combination anywhere in their lineup than he’s got right now. He plays with Christian Fischer and Travis Boyd. Jesper Boqvist, Dawson Mercer, Yegor Sharangovich, Miles Wood, and many others could fit well with Ritchie. Especially when he plays that pest-like net-front presence, he would fit in with what the Devils need.
There is a lot the Devils would like about Ritchie. He’s very responsible with the puck. He has just 12 giveaways at 5v5 this season. Ritchie would fit really well in the Devils bottom six. He won’t cost too much in terms of trade value, and he would be a lineup fixture in the playoffs. This could be a really fun under-the-radar move that helps with the Devils depth more than most other trades.
Bo Horvat – New York Islanders
Yeah, we know. Bo Horvat was JUST sent to the New York Islanders, and the Devils likely didn’t want to pay the price it took to get him from the Canucks. However, there’s a good chance the Islanders aren’t in contention still on March 3rd. Would you really put it past Lou Lamoriello to trade for Horvat for a month to see if it works and immediately flip him for a similar or possibly even better return?
The Islanders are only in charge of $4.125 million this season with the Canucks taking on $1.375 million. This allows the Islanders to take half of his current salary, which puts him at just over $2 million for the rest of the year against the salary cap. The Devils could make $2 million work.
The issue really is the rental status of Horvat. Would the Devils want to give Horvat eight years and the type of price he’s seeking? The Devils still have to pay Bratt, and it’s much easier to accept paying Bratt and Meier close to $18 million when they’re 24 and 26 than Bratt and Horvat when he’s a year older and has less of a track record.
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Still, Horvat changes the perception of the Devils this season. That’s the point of a rental. It takes something to get something, and Horvat is a very good something. There is a lot of “what ifs” here that would need to fall the Devils way, but Fitzgerald and Lamoriello have worked together in the past. It could happen if the Islanders aren’t seeing the results they expected.