Elliotte Friedman says struggling Devils forward is further from a trade than we thought

To say that the last few weeks have been a disaster for the New Jersey Devils would be an understatement.

The black-and-red is still in the midst of a rapid freefall as they separate from an otherwise tight Eastern Conference. Despite a relatively healthy group, New Jersey is being undone by the inability to finish scoring chances, heavily inconsistent goaltending, locker room and front office turmoil, and the complete lack of cap space to make meaningful additions that could solve the on-ice woes.

Recently, the Devils have dealt with a fiasco regarding defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who accused the team of healthy scratching him in hopes of getting him to waive his no-movement clause. This drama has made his departure inevitable, and could deal significant damage to the team's efforts in attracting premier talent (such as Quinn Hughes) going forward.

Yet, while general manager Tom Fitzgerald made the terrible mistake of publicly revealing his intention of dumping Hamilton's contract (one of a litany of mistakes he's made), one could say that he's trying to get rid of the wrong contract.

Tom Fitzgerald not looking for Ondřej Palát suitors is baffling

In the January 12 episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that Fitzgerald has not considered trading away much-maligned forward Ondřej Palát, who is currently under a five-year, $30 million contract ($6 million AAV) and has a no-movement clause.

"Ondřej Palát played six-and-a-half minutes on Sunday, the last four games has been under 10 minutes, the production has been way down this year, of course. Anything going on there, you think?" co-host Kyle Bukauskas asked during the latest episode.

"All I can tell you, Kyle, is that up until Saturday, someone swore to me up and down that he hasn't been asked [to waive his NMC]," Friedman responded.

Read More: Elliotte Friedman doesn't think the Devils will make this major change during the season

Palát, who signed his contract with the Devils back in 2022, has been a disappointment with only 90 points (36 goals, 54 assists) in 242 games with the team. He's been especially poor this season with only two goals and eight points in 45 games; in the Devils' humiliating 9-0 loss to the New York Islanders on January 6, Palát had an atrocious -5 in less than 10 minutes on the ice.

Perhaps the biggest reason why the Devils went after the 34-year-old when he was a free agent was to bring in a veteran presence to lead their young core. Palát is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning (and was important in both of those wins) and has been an alternate captain in each season he's spent in New Jersey so far. From a leadership standpoint, he may be valuable to a team with Cup aspirations.

But as the Devils slide out of the playoff picture, Palát's intangibles mean very little, and his complete lack of production alongside his expensive contract effectively makes him dead weight. In fact, Hamilton has been far more productive across his Devils tenure than Palát, so publicly expressing the desire to trade Hamilton yet doing nothing to move Palát is an extremely confusing move. In fact, given the divided locker room, New Jersey needs a leadership change and that involves Palát.

Granted, if the Devils were to try and move the veteran, they should handle it far more respectfully than they have with Hamilton. The last thing they need is another PR nightmare.

But as Fitzgerald struggles to create cap space, a possible solution was (and is) in front of him. Yet, he didn't even entertain it.