The New Jersey Devils are going to be tied to some of the biggest names on the trade market. The annual Jack Hughes injury has them in desperate need for a center, as Dawson Mercer has not been working out there. Nico Hischier has struggled to contribute at the level we’re used to seeing, and this offense has not done well for a few weeks now, struggling even before the Hughes injury.
The St. Louis Blues have been perceived as sellers for over a year, but the addition of Jim Montgomery as head coach changed that narrative last season. Despite months of rumors, the Blues made two trades last season. It wasn’t Jordan Kyrou or Robert Thomas who moved. Instead, it was Scott Perunovich for a mid-round draft pick with the New York Islanders, and it was Mathias Laferriere for Corey Andonovski, a deal of overage prospects with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Over the offseason, the Blues made the unenviable trade with the Montreal Canadiens, where they sent forward Zac Bolduc for defensive prospect Logan Mailloux. The trade was controversial from the start because of Mailloux’s past, which includes inappropriate behavior with a woman in Sweden. Not only was it a PR firestorm for the Blues, but he’s been terrible on the ice.
Now, the Blues are deemed as one of the most prominent sellers in the NHL. If what they’ve put together isn’t working, we see them trading anything that’s not a young player. We talked about how Jordan Kyrou would make perfect sense with the Devils.
One player who doesn’t make sense for the Devils is Brayden Schenn. He is a center, so he has that going for him, but that’s it. Yet, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports that the Devils are in on him.
"Schenn, as I previously mentioned, is a name the Devils I would presume to have interest in again due to them keeping tabs on him leading up to last year’s trade deadline. Adding size and/or competitiveness/grit (in addition to a center) is a priority for the Devils, I was told by a team source. "Anthony Di Marco, Daily Faceoff
Brayden Schenn is not the answer for the New Jersey Devils
The Blues captain has six points in 21 games this season. That doesn’t help the Devils at all. And he won’t come cheap. The Blues will want the Devils to throw assets at them like Schenn is playing like he did when he first joined the Blues. He had 28 goals that season, but that was the same year Taylor Hall won MVP. Yeah, it was that long ago.
Schenn is already 34 years old, and he has two more years left on his contract after this one. The Blues expect teams to pay more for that fact, but it’s because of that that the Devils need to steer clear of him. He’s too big a risk for the price. He’s making $6.5 million against the salary cap each season.
The Devils want to make moves to improve their offense, and they have money to spend now because of all the players they can put on LTIR, but adding $6.5 million doesn’t really help them when the player is struggling like Schenn is. This isn’t a case of a player going through a slump. This looks more like physical decline.
Even if the Blues accepted Ondrej Palat as part of the package, it doesn’t help the Devils. It takes away assets from a trade that could bring actual help to the lineup.