It was widely reported this past week that the New Jersey Devils were looking for depth defensemen at the NHL Trade Deadline as they tried to cushion the blow from another rash of injuries to their defensive core. Jonas Siegenthaler has been out since he took an awkward tumble against Pittsburgh on February 4th, while Dougie Hamilton is reportedly week-to-week with an injury he suffered in the Devils crushing loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
But how GM Tom Fitzgerald chose to fill that depth defenseman role, and the price he paid to do so, is deeply concerning, as he does not seem to understand the predicament the Devils are in or how to navigate out of it.
The Devils acquired Brian Dumoulin from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 2025 2nd-round pick (the better of the picks from Edmonton and Winnipeg) and a 2024 3rd-round pick, Herman Traff.
In a vacuum, Dumoulin fits a lot of the Devils' needs at this precise moment. He is a defensive left-shot defenseman who can fill in for Siegenthaler and shelter one of the Devils right shot young defensemen, Seamus Casey or Simon Nemec, as they are pressed into service down the stretch in Hamilton's absence.
But every single other aspect of this trade fails to make a lick of sense. Trading a 2nd-round pick alone for a depth defenseman would be a significant price to pay. Buying a rental right after you announce that your best player will miss the remainder of the season and playoffs is even worse. And the Devils also chipped in a recent 3rd-round pick in Traff. Dumoulin is a 33-year-old pending unrestricted free agent, and it is hard to imagine the Devils re-sign him unless they strike out with Jonathan Kovacevic.
Dumoulin is a decent player, but it's worth noting that he's been absolutely caved in while playing difficult minutes for the Ducks this season.
Dumoulin did well last year in a sheltered role and is getting crushed this year in a difficult one. Probably fine on the third pair for New Jersey, but a second feels a little steep. pic.twitter.com/rOX1NmyeFh
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) March 6, 2025
Traff, meanwhile, had established himself as one of the Devils' more intriguing young forward prospects. He had seven points in the SHL this year and six points in nine games in the second-tier Allsvenskan league. He contributed to the Swedish World Junior Championship team, scoring two goals in this past year's tournament. He was likely a secondary piece to this trade, but he's an interesting prospect with some good size. Including him on top of a 2nd-round pick is a fairly substantial return to the Ducks for a rental defenseman better suited for a third-pairing role on a contender.
The trade continued to get even more puzzling as more details trickled out. After the initial news of the trade broke, it was later reported that the Ducks were retaining 50% of Brian Dumoulin's $3.15 million cap hit for the rest of the season.
The Ducks are retaining 50 percent on Dumoulin's $3.15M cap hit.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 6, 2025
2nd RD pick going to Anaheim is this year's draft.
and again, prospect going to Ducks is Herman Traff
This part of the trade is truly mind-boggling to wrap your head around, as the Devils have placed Jack Hughes on long-term injured reserve, and have his cap hit to spend. They may even have Dougie Hamilton's cap hit to spend if he is indeed going to miss the remainder of the regular season.
Cap retention costs teams, usually in the form of draft pick compensation. The Devils were just paid mid-tier prospect Shane Lachance in exchange for taking on $575,000 of Trent Frederic's contract. They have plenty of cap space to take on Brian Dumoulin's full cap hit. It doesn't make any conceivable sense why they would ask Anaheim to retain on Dumoulin, presumably increasing Anaheim's return to do so.
Unless another shoe is about to drop and they are allocating Jack Hughes' entire cap hit towards some kind of large blockbuster like acquiring Mikko Rantanen (doubtful), the move is impossible to explain. The cap retention on Dumoulin feels like a trade that was offered a week ago before Jack Hughes injury and just now accepted by Anaheim.
It really is beginning to feel like the Devils have lost the plot, as they come towards the end of a second straight season-ending tailspin. If this is a sign of things to come at this trade deadline, they'd be better off not picking up the phone anymore.