New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Legitimately Worth Jesper Bratt Trade
By Nick Villano
The Jesper Bratt discourse has been out of control. The New Jersey Devils winger is coming into another offseason without a contract, his third in four years. After two harsh contract negotiations and a playoff no-show, fans are pretty fed up with the whole thing. Fans are fickle, so this isn’t unexpected. However, the suggestions for trade offers or outright releasing Bratt are beyond insane.
Yes, there have been fans that said the Devils shouldn’t even extend Bratt a qualifying offer. That’s ridiculous and would never happen. The trade options are just as wild. Maybe it makes sense in terms of talent acquisition to send Bratt to the Winnipeg Jets for Connor Hellebuyck. He is one of the better goalies in the league, but he has one year left and he’s about to turn 30 years old.
Other trades include adding to get Kyle Conner (which hurts the Devils defensively), trading Bratt for one first-round pick (oh), and many other terrible ideas. Tom Fitzgerald says the framework of a deal is already in place. That hasn’t stopped anyone from calling for Bratt’s head. So, to help you out, we placed the only five theoretically possible available players that would be acceptable in a Jesper Bratt trade.
1. William Nylander
This one is probably going to come up a lot, and it’s incredibly ironic. Toronto Maple Leafs fans have been giving William Nylander issues since he had a contentious contract negotiation in December 2018. He ended up being underpaid, and now he’s looking to cash in even further. He could want a deal in the realm of J.T. Miller (7 years / $56,000,000) or Filip Forsberg (8 years / $68,000,000).
It would help the Devils in the short and long term to replace Bratt with Nylander. They play a similar game, and they both play winger. Nylander is a little better than Bratt, too. Would the Maple Leafs do the deal one-for-one? Probably not, but the Devils wouldn’t have to add much. No other team in the Nylander sweepstakes could give an asset like Bratt, keeping the Maple Leafs’ window alive.