The New Jersey Devils are stacked as far as prospects on the blue line. Right now, they have a lineup that’s set in stone, with Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, Brett Pesce, and Johnny Kovacevic signed for at least three more years. Luke Hughes is expected to join that list. Simon Nemec has a make-or-break year ahead of him, but if he proves to be an NHL player, he will be good to sign long-term as well.
Meanwhile, the Devils have Anton Silayev, Ethan Edwards, and Topias Vilen who have NHL skill sets that need developing. On top of all that, there are some long shots who could turn into something, like Daniil Karpovich, Sigge Holmgren, Mikael Diotte, and Calen Addison.
Then, there’s Seamus Casey. Casey has been incredible offensively, scoring four goals and recording eight points over 14 NHL games last season. In his rookie year, he averaged what would have been 47 points over 82 games. Of course, this is a small sample size, but Casey has shown he can perform offensively on the NHL level.
Defensively? Now that’s a different story.
Of all the Devils' defensemen last season, only Dennis Cholowski had a worse Corsi For percentage, and only Daniil Misyul had a worse high-danger chance percentage according to Natural Stat Trick’s calculations. Casey was incredibly lucky last season. He faced 32 high-danger chances and ZERO turned into high-danger goals. His goalies bailed him out constantly.
Would Seamus Casey be better off as a trade asset?
When looking at the situation, it might make sense for the Devils to shop Seamus Casey for a high-value forward prospect. The Devils have some interesting forward prospects, like Lenni Hameenaho, Ben Kevan, Arseniy Gritsyuk (who is expected to be on the NHL roster this season), and Conrad Fondrk, but none of them are even in the top 100 prospects in the NHL. They could definitely make the NHL, but they need perfect development to get there.
The Devils have too many defensemen, focusing on the blue line in multiple drafts. On top of that, they went on a spending spree last year, giving big deals to Pesce, Kovacevic, and Brenden Dillon. Casey might work better as a trade candidate for a team that needs more defense in their prospect pool.
The Devils could use Casey to help the NHL team, but that’s harder to come by at this point in the offseason. If a team doesn’t like a prospect’s fit during training camp, the Devils could find a place for them, especially if they are a center. The Devils could really use more high-value center depth.
It’s not clear who the targets are. They will come to fruition during the preseason. However, the Devils need to figure out if Casey makes more sense as a trade asset or a prospect in their organization.