New Jersey Devils Get Their Trade Deadline Piece In Timo Meier
After waiting for hours on Sunday to get a confirmation, the New Jersey Devils finally got the deal done to acquire San Jose Sharks winger Timo Meier. They finally got their guy and a legit top-line goal scorer. In 57 games, Meier has 31 goals and 52 points, putting him at 5th on this team.
He is a big body that adds something different to this team. While he is not a bruiser, he has shown some snarl this season, which could be a small bonus to the Devils. Tom Fitzgerald traded for Meier so he can score goals.
Meier joins a team that has historically struggled to score. A player has scored 40 goals on this team nine times, and it hasn’t happened since Zach Parise did it in 2009. Now, with Jack Hughes also showing his scoring ability, the Devils might have two 40-goal scorers.
Meier is an advanced stat machine, and his quality in linemates is only going to be going up on the Devils. No matter what the line combinations end up being, this team’s forward depth moving into the playoffs is insane and the best we have seen since the 2012 Stanley Cup Final run. They will need it in a big way to keep up with the New York Rangers, who they likely play in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. They are a strong team that has added two massively good forwards in Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane.
The package the Devils had to give up was fantastic from the Devils’ perspective as well. They got to keep Dawson Mercer and lost none of the prospects that Fitzgerald deemed core pieces. Fabian Zetterlund was a great player for this team and was underutilized but is not a big loss. He has a good shot, plays hard, and should be a great pick-up for the Sharks.
As for the rest of the deal, Shakir Mukhamadullin has been playing well in the KHL. However, from the Devils side of things, he is a ways off from making the NHL. With Luke Hughes and Kevin Bahl ahead of him in terms of prospect pool, he probably never had much of a shot at making this roster.
The draft picks will likely be two first-rounders which is the part that could hurt the most, but these will be late picks either way. The team can always recoup them if they wanted to by moving a guy like Damon Severson or Miles Wood.
Next. 3 Takeaways From Timo Meier Trade. dark
All in all, this trade felt like an A+ right away and still does in the days after. The team knew what it needed and held on making a fantastic move that has this team set for the playoffs while keeping the future looking incredibly bright. This team’s window is just opening so Devils fans just need to sit back and enjoy what should be years of wins.