Tom Fitzgerald has been saying for weeks that his shopping list at this deadline included a center who could play up in the middle 6, a depth defenseman, and a top 6 wing. He got the depth defenseman yesterday in the Devils' deal for Brian Dumoulin. As the trade deadline neared, he added a second checkmark to that shopping list, adding center Cody Glass from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a third round pick and minor league players who have not been identified as of the trade deadline.
Glass is a former sixth-overall pick (he was actually the first draft pick in Vegas Golden Knights history). That upside makes him an intriguing trade deadline target for the New Jersey Devils. But his draft pedigree probably overrates what he will bring to the table with the Devils. He's now 25 years old, on his third team, and he has chipped in just five goals and seven points this season for Pittsburgh. He did, however, score a career high 35 points with Nashville in 2022-23, and he will add size and a strong motor to the Devils bottom six.
Glass at the very least seems like a vast improvement over Justin Dowling on the Devils fourth line, and potentially even an upgrade over Erik Haula as a third-line center heading into next season. The key will be seeing if they can tap into the potential the Golden Knights saw in him when he was drafted highly. Getting the 2022-2023 version of Glass would be a big improvement on the Devils bottom 6 this season. He also adds a skillset that the Devils have been sorely lacking this season, as he is above-average at taking faceoffs, winning 52.7% this season. The Devils as a team are 24th in the league, converting on just 49.05% of their faceoffs.
Glass was playing out the second year of a 2 year/$2.5 million AAV contract with Pittsburgh, but he will be a restricted free agent after this season, which means the Devils will retain team control of him if they offer him a qualifying offer after this season. The Devils may look to do a short term extension at just below that AAV for the next few seasons, to gain some cost-certainty over possibly heading to arbitration with Glass.
The other thing this deal signals is that the Devils scouting staff continue to value size and skating. Since the draft last year, where the Devils picked just one player shorter than 6-foot-3, I have joked that the Devils have a Google Sheet that sorts everyone by height and they just simply go down the list. Brian Dumoulin, who the devils acquired on Thursday, is 6-foot-4, as well, after all.
But there's nothing inherently wrong with valuing size and skating ability in your bottom of the roster depth. The Vegas Golden Knights arguably won the Stanley Cup a few seasons ago solely because they built a towering defensive core that paired length with skating ability from the back-end. It's a model that works, especially if you can pair it with skill and playmaking at the top of the roster. That is the model the Devils are building towards, and Glass seems like he could be a solid contributor to the Devils down the stretch this year and into next season.
As for the third checkmark on the Devils' shopping list? It doesn't look like Tom Fitzgerald was able to reel in a top 6 wing, which makes the salary cap retention on Dumoulin even more puzzling. Perhaps there will be a late breaking trade like the hour-late Vanecek for Kahkonen swap last season, but it looks like the Devils will head into the offseason still looking to add more scoring.