What If the Devils Were Aggressive Sellers at the Trade Deadline

The NHL Trade Deadline is this Friday. Two days from now.

Historically, this is one of my favorite times of the year on the NHL calendar, mainly because it’s one of the few times on the calendar that an NHL GM actually does their job and makes trades. We get to see firsthand which teams are serious about winning and competing for championships and which ones are not. We get to see which GMs know what they’re doing and which ones don’t.

I like to consider myself an ideas person. I come up with ideas on fake trades to make the Devils better and then I get to be mad online after the fact when the team doesn’t do exactly what I told them to do. During the buildup to the deadline in prior years, I would come up with trade targets from around the league, gauge whether or not they’re a fit, what the cost might be and if its something the Devils might consider doing.

I love trade deadline season.

Unfortunately in what is shaping up to be a dreadful finish to a once-promising season, it’s hard to get too excited about the trade deadline this year.

It’s not that I lack ideas of what the Devils could or should do. Trust me, I’m going to share a bunch of ideas of what the Devils could and should do at the deadline shortly. But at the end of the day, I’m just a guy behind a keyboard with fake trade ideas. I’m not the general manager of the team. And at the end of the day, its tough to have faith in Devils management to do anything right.

I don’t exactly have confidence in Tom Fitzgerald after he needlessly gave Jacob Markstrom a 2 year contract extension earlier this year. I don’t have confidence in the GM who gave Johnathan Kovacevic five years when he already had a logjam at RHD on the NHL roster. I don’t have confidence in the GM who gave Ondrej Palat $6M for 5 years before finally paying assets a few weeks ago to dump him elsewhere. I don’t have confidence in the GM who capped out the roster to the point where he couldn’t make the Quinn Hughes trade happen when it was right there for him. I don’t have confidence in the GM who whiffed on the 7th overall pick and lacked the assets to pull off said Quinn Hughes trade. I don’t have confidence in the GM whose second hand picked head coach is failing in spectacular fashion.

I could keep going but you get the point. It’s insane to me that we’re at this point of the season, sitting through brutal loss after brutal loss, watching a boring, dreadful team that can’t score and can’t get a stop when they need one. It’s insane to me that we’re STILL trusting Fitzgerald to not somehow make things worse, because he should’ve already been relieved of his duties. He probably would’ve been by now if the Devils were a serious operation.

But he’s still here. It is what it is. So how can the Devils make the most of it with the deadline upon us?

I don’t know what Fitzgerald will do. I can only say what I would do if I was the general manager of this team. But if I were sitting in the big chair, my goals would be as follows.

Free up as much cap space for the 2026-27 season (and beyond) as possible. I don’t know what the summer will bring. I don’t know if Minnesota will look to flip Quinn Hughes if/when he says he’s not signing there. I don’t know what players from other teams might become available. But I want to be in a better position than the Devils were this year to make that type of move if the opportunity presents itself, and half the battle is having the requisite cap space to be able to make those types of moves. It’s something the Devils didn’t have for most of this season, which may or may not have hamstrung them, depending whether or not you want to believe that Tom Fitzgerald was looking to make a move the whole time and the lack of cap space wasn’t just an excuse as to why nothing was getting done.
Accumulate as much draft capital as possible. Mostly to use it in the aforementioned types of deals that I’m looking to make, but also to help rebuild a Devils farm system that has shifted somewhere between league average and below average the last couple years since Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec graduated.
Try to find interesting players to take a flier on.
Revamp a blueline that hasn’t worked.
Add speed and skill to the lineup

Of course, I’m not reinventing the wheel here with my goals or analysis. Every team that can’t win is going to try to add more speed and skill, or get younger, or shed payroll in the process. But with that out of the way, here’s a bunch of fake trades that the Devils won’t make over the next 48 hours, even though they probably should if they were ever on the table.

Devils Trade Jonas Siegenthaler & Paul Cotter to the Sabres for W Isak Rosen, a 2026 4th round pick, and a 2027 2nd round pick

The “Siegenthaler to Buffalo” fit just makes too much sense on paper.

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff has a familiarity with Siegenthaler from their time together in New Jersey. The Sabres need to upgrade over Zach Metsa and Michael Kesselring on their third pairing if they want any hopes of doing anything once they get to the playoffs. Siegenthaler won’t help the Sabres offensively, but that’s not his game anyways and the Sabres don’t really need more offense from the backend. They need a defensively responsible defenseman with experience who can kill penalties. Add in that Siegenthaler is signed for 2 more years after this one at $3.4M AAV and its the type of deal that wouldn’t prevent Buffalo from tending to more pressing matters over the summer, like trying to re-sign Alex Tuch. As for Cotter, the Sabres are currently rolling Joshua Dunne out there on their 4th line, so he would simply be another option for Ruff on the back end of the roster.

Getting a 4th round pick would help soften the blow from trading a 3rd away when they dumped Ondrej Palat last month, and a 2nd round pick is currency with which to work with, but the wild card in this deal would be getting Rosen.

Rosen has been a popular name mentioned in the Devils blogosphere…..Alex Chauvancy and JP Gambatese both mentioned similar deals to the one I proposed on their respective Substack platforms, so it feels like I’m riding their coattails a bit. I can’t speak for them but I think I view Rosen similarly to how they do.

Rosen would theoretically add some much needed speed, shooting ability, and skating to the Devils forward group. He’s gotten a few cups of coffee with the Sabres the last few years and registered 7 points in 16 NHL games this season. He’s also been a consistent producer at the AHL level with 91 goals and 97 assists over 229 games for Rochester. Already 22 years old, the former 2021 1st round pick might be blocked at the NHL level as other young forwards like Noah Ostlund and Konsta Helenius have either already carved out an NHL role or have higher upside. Rosen really doesn’t have much left to prove at the AHL level, so it would make sense that he might be available in the right deal.

Admittedly, I don’t love that there might be concerns about Rosen’s compete level, as that might be what has held him back from graduating from the AHL in the first place. But the Devils are probably at the point where they should be more concerned with whether or not a player can score and worrying about things like ’compete level’ secondarily. Rosen might not be an NHL player, but he has the type of skillset where he’s probably worth the gamble and time investment to find out.

Assuming Siegenthaler doesn’t have Buffalo on his 10-team no-trade list, some variant of this deal could potentially be an option.

Devils Trade Dawson Mercer & Dougie Hamilton (with $3M of salary retention) to Anaheim for a 2027 2nd round pick and D Pavel Mintyukov

Anaheim appears to be another team that is poised to snap a long playoff drought. They’re also a team that has a need at RHD beyond this season as captain Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba are both pending UFAs.

On paper, Hamilton would make a lot of sense as a top pairing RHD compliment to Jackson LaCombe. He could also slot into one of Anaheim’s power play units. Obviously, Hamilton has a 10-team trade list so he’d probably have to sign off on moving across the country on a whim. But he’d be joining a playoff race and there are worse places to live in this country than Southern California.

Mercer’s situation is well documented. He’s a former first round pick who has been an NHL regular since making the team out of camp in 2021. His development has sort of plateaued to where he’s been a guy who maybe gets you 20 goals and 35 ish points in a season, which isn’t all that great considering he gets consistent Top Six playing time, plays in all situations, and hasn’t missed an NHL game yet in his career. I don’t know that the Ducks are an ideal fit but Mercer could slot onto their third line immediately with all the injuries they’ve had and make their lineup a lot deeper.

The Ducks could theoretically fit in Hamilton’s full AAV without salary retention, although I don’t know how much of an appetite they have for paying full price on Hamilton when Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier are among the five pending RFAs for the Ducks. So why am I open to the idea of salary retention as a Devils fan?

Simply put, I want to try to get Pavel Mintyukov to New Jersey.

Mintyukov had reportedly told the Ducks earlier this season he’d like to be moved, according to Elliotte Friedman. I don’t know if he’s still disgruntled after being a healthy scratch earlier in the year, and the Ducks seem to be giving him more consistent playing time since New Year’s. But he’s due a new contract after this year and Pat Verbeek tends to play hardball with RFAs anyways. The Ducks don’t have a shortage of prospects on the blueline either, so maybe now is the time for them to cash in on Mintyukov.

Mintyukov is the type of defenseman the Devils are lacking at the NHL level. He’s a plus skater who has offensive ability. He can break out of the defensive zone with the puck. He can join the rush. He’d be a welcome change of pace from the redundancy of the defense-first, defense-only, average at best skaters that have cluttered the Devils depth chart at the NHL level. And while he’s due a new contract, he shouldn’t break the bank. The only question would be whether or not you can convince Pat Verbeek to give up on a recent 10th overall pick for a “win now” type of move. From a value perspective, its probably a fair deal. From a “we’re trying to build something long-term” perspective, Verbeek might say “thanks but no thanks” before hanging up the phone once Mintyukov’s name comes up. Either way, this is the type of player I’m trying to get and it doesn’t really change the fact that Anaheim is a solid potential destination for Hamilton.

Devils Trade Brenden Dillon to the Red Wings for a 2026 3rd round pick and prospect Eddie Genborg

Not much to say about this one other than Detroit could use another NHL-caliber defenseman and Dillon is certainly one of those. Dillon has a full NTC for the rest of this season. Would he waive to go to a contender? Would he waive to go to Detroit? I don’t know the answers to this, but he hasn’t won a Stanley Cup so he might waive to go Cup chase.

So why am I targeting Detroit’s 2nd round draft pick from 2025 in Eddie Genborg? He’s a big body that is the right type of “hard to play against” with his physicality, but also has an ability to get to the front of the net and cause havoc. If he makes it to the NHL, he probably projects as a third line grinder type of winger. You do need those types who can play further down in your lineup.

Value-wise, this deal wouldn’t be too different than the one that sent Brian Dumoulin to the Devils at last year’s deadline. The main differences would be that Dillon has a full NTC for the rest of this season, Dillon has another year of control, the draft pick is a round lower than the one the Devils gave up, and Genborg is probably a slightly higher upside prospect than the one the Devils gave up in Herman Traff.

Devils Trade Nico Daws to the Canadiens for Patrik Laine and a 2026 3rd round pick

The logic behind this is two-fold.

First, Montreal is in the playoff hunt, but Laine’s large AAV is preventing the Habs from making moves they’d like to make elsewhere to improve the roster. And now that I freed up a bunch of cap space on the Devils end by trading away Hamilton, Dillon, Siegenthaler, and Mercer, they would theoretically have no problem taking a 20-game flier on the former #2 overall pick for the rest of this season. If the Devils like what they see, maybe they consider a short-term deal where Laine can rebuild his value around the league pumping in a bunch of goals playing on a line with Jack Hughes. If Laine stinks, barely plays, or is an issue in the room, the Devils can simply move on. I’m not saying the Devils should give Laine $6M a year on his next contract, but this is one of those situations where there’s little to no risk seeing if anything is there.

Admittedly, I’m not a big Laine fan. There’s always ‘something’ with him. He has a 10-team no-trade list. He rarely plays. He’s barely played this season. When he does play, he’s a bit of a one-trick pony. But the reason why I’d be ok taking a flier here is that his one trick that he’s good at happens to be the thing this Devils team is dreadful at. Laine can score goals.

Secondly, I think the Devils have made their bed in regards to Nico Daws and his future, or lack thereof, in New Jersey. Daws is blocked for the foreseeable future while Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen are Devils. There’s probably a better chance of Daws taking his talents overseas this summer than there is of him signing another contract with the Devils. At least here, Daws has a chance of potentially seeing time in the NHL.

I don’t know that the Habs would be all that enthralled with Daws. But I do know they’d like an escape hatch on what’s left of Laine’s deal.

Why I Would Hold On To Certain Players

I would expect most of the comments to say something along the lines of “what about so-and-so?”. So let’s dive into some of those guys.

Chris Johnston mentioned that Nick Bjugstad is “likely to be on the move again” in his latest Trade Board. I don’t quite get that one as the Devils have lacked a competent fourth-line center for some time now, centers are in high demand, and he’s signed for next season at a reasonable cap hit of $1.75M. I also don’t quite get that one seeing as the Devils literally just traded for him a few weeks ago. Unless he’s not in their plans at all for next season or the Devils think they can do better (and I don’t trust that they can at a better price point), I’d probably just hold on to Bjugstad for now.

I understand that most Devils fans are ready to drive Johnathan Kovacevic out of town, given his dreadful play since returning, and I get that. I personally have a hard time believing someone would bail Tom Fitzgerald out of that contract, and if he does have someone willing to take him on, he should probably not let that other GM off the phone until the trade is done.

I wouldn’t be looking to move Connor Brown, Cody Glass, Simon Nemec, Arseny Gritsyuk, or Lenni Hameenaho at this time. I don’t think Luke Glendening or Colton White really have any value in the trade market. Stefan Noesen and Zack MacEwen are injured. Nobody is bailing them out on Jacob Markstrom and I don’t think a Jake Allen trade is happening either. The Devils, aren’t trading Jack or Luke Hughes, nor should they. They’re not trading Nico Hischier, nor should they. Maybe you can get a late pick for Evgeni Dadonov despite his lack of production but that’s not going to move the needle.

That would leave core-adjacent players such as Timo Meier, Brett Pesce and Jesper Bratt. I think there are conversations that could be had about shopping any of them in a so-called hockey trade, but I think with their respective trade protections and term remaining on their contracts, any of them getting dealt this week is highly unlikely.

How Would the Devils Lineup And Future Assets Look If They Approached The Deadline In This Manner?

The Devils lineup would still be bad, but in a season that’s going nowhere, that’s to be expected. We’re beyond the point where anything this season is salvageable and that’s not what I’m trying to accomplish anyways. At the very least, they’d freed up some salary, taken on a couple interesting projects, and maybe found a Top 4 LHD of the future.

Here is what your potential line combinations could look like the rest of the way.

Jesper Bratt – Jack Hughes – Patrik Laine

Arseni Gritsyuk – Nico Hischier – Timo Meier

Isak Rosen – Cody Glass – Connor Brown

Shane LaChance – Nick Bjugstad – Lenni Hameenaho

Luke Hughes – Brett Pesce

Pavel Mintyukov – Simon Nemec

Colton White – Johnathan Kovacevic

To be clear, I don’t really care a ton about how this team looks for the rest of this season. They’re going to wind up with a Top 10 draft pick. Maybe they get lucky and win the lottery and pick Top 2. The only thing I really want at this point is for key players to make it through Game 82 healthy and the Devils to undo a lot of the damage Fitzgerald has done. My goal for this deadline is to create as much salary cap flexibility for next season as possible and get as much draft capital as I could to make future trades with, and I feel we accomplished that (although I’m probably overestimating/overrating/overvaluing the return the Devils might get on some of these deals).

The Devils would have $28.65M in cap space going into next season according to PuckPedia, with that number closer to $30M if/when the Devils buy out Maxim Tsyplakov over the summer. They do have several RFA that would need to be addressed, but there’s also no doubt they’d have the ability to be in on just about anything that might pop up over the summer.

Now, do I expect any or all of this to happen?

Of course not.

Things have been relatively quiet in regards to the Devils. Dougie Hamilton’s name has been sort of publicly out there. So have the Devils defensemen. Players with term aren’t always moved at the deadline. My approach here is also on the more aggressive side of things the Devils could do. Most NHL general managers are conservative by nature and I certainly don’t expect Tom Fitzgerald, who is on a scorching hot seat, to tear it down to this extent.

I do think the Devils need to change something in the room though. They’ve already moved on from Ondrej Palat. Hamilton and Dillon are both on the wrong side of 30, so moving one or both makes some sense. Dawson Mercer’s development as a player has plateaued and while he’s still young enough to find another level, its also possible this is simply what he’s going to be as an NHL player. Paul Cotter is an average at best fourth liner.

The Devils wouldn’t fix all of their issues immediately going this route, but its far more likely they turn things around quicker if they do and then parlay their newfound assets into replacing those players than if they do the bare minimum at the deadline and call it a day.

We’ll see what direction Tom Fitzgerald goes in.

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