Tom Fitzgerald's most common trade partners and how it can tell us about the New Jersey Devils' offseason

The beginning of NHL Free Agency has been slower this year than in previous years due to other teams keeping their players before the opening of the signing period. Many insiders believe that the trade market will be the primary means by which most teams improve. Can we see who the Devils will deal with based off of Fitzgerald's previous trades?
Dallas Stars v New Jersey Devils
Dallas Stars v New Jersey Devils | Bruce Bennett/GettyImages
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Teams with Two Trades

  • Buffalo Sabres
  • Colorado Avalanche
  • Columbus Blue Jackets
  • Dallas Stars
  • Edmonton Oilers
  • Nashville Predators
  • Pittsburgh Penguins
  • Vancouver Canucks
  • Winnipeg Jets
  • Arizona Coyotes/Utah Hockey Club/Utah Mammoth.

Ten teams have made at least two trades with the Devils and Tom Fitzgerald. Since there are 20 trades to examine, we will not review all of them, but rather select a few.

The Sabres' deals amounted to a bunch of nothing. The biggest move there was sending Wayne Simmonds to Buffalo for a fifth-round pick. The biggest deal made with the Canucks sent Lazar to New Jersey.

Both trades with the Winnipeg Jets happened at the 2024 trade deadline, sending Tyler Toffoli and Colin Miller north of the border in separate trades. Coincidentally, the Devils were brokers for the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers. The Devils received Shane Lachance to flip Trent Frederic to Edmonton and a draft pick to send Chris Tanev to Dallas.

The two trades made with the Coyotes/Hockey Club/Mammoth group are both significant in their own ways. The Devils sent John Marino for picks, one becoming Mikhail Yegorov who shows promise. The other was a seventh-round pick for seventh-round pick swap. The pick acquired by Fitzgerald was used to select Zakhar Bardakov.

Bardakov was flipped to Colorado for Kurtis MacDermid, one of Fitzgerald's most puzzling moves. The other Colorado trade sent Ryan Graves to New Jersey. The Penguins' moves saw Ty Smith go and Marino come in one trade. The other was this past deadline that had Cody Glass come in for a first-round bust Chase Stillman.

The Devils sent long time franchise defenseman Damon Severson to Columbus for a draft pick. One of the two trades with the Predators was a historic one, as it was the last trade ever made by long time Predators General Manager David Poile.