President and general manager Tom Fitzgerald is under fire for his decision-making in assembling the team that is 11 points out of the playoffs with 25 games remaining. One of the main reasons for his criticism and scrutiny was the inability to free up cap space to acquire defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.
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Hughes was traded to the Minnesota Wild, leaving the New Jersey Devils wondering how this happened as the players looked for a spark to save their season. Instead of, injuries and trade speculation have ended their season in a downward spiral, but their general manager still believes they can make the playoffs and wants to shake things up.
Before the Olympic trading freeze, Fitzgerald traded Ondrej Palat to the New York Islanders and acquired veterans center Nick Bjugstad of the St. Louis Blues. As part of the Palat trade, the Devils received Maxim Tsplakov. Once again the focus seems to be on the bottom six, even if the top six also need a jolt.
On weekends, Jimmy Murphy of RG Media wrote about the New Jersey Devils and Tom Fitzgerald looking to make a hockey trade similar to last year’s Dylan Cozens-Josh Norris trade at the deadline between Ottawa and Buffalo. The plan is to shake things up in the Devils locker room so players know no one is safe meeting the needs of the team.
“He wants to make a trade that he believes will fill a great need and make his team better, but he also wants to send a message to his players that unless you have control over if and where you are traded to, you are not safe in the future.” the source told RG.
The problem is that the core of this group, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier and Jack Hughes, enjoy some kind of trade protection. Jack Hughes’ trade clause doesn’t kick in until the summer, but the Devils aren’t trading him. The question becomes: will the Devils decide to move on from Hischier, Bratt and Meier?
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So what about a guy like Dawson Mercer? Do they see him as a core piece? There has been plenty of time to trade him in the past, including last year when the Devils were looking for Ryan O’Reilly from the Nashville Predators and Brayden Schenn from the St. Louis Blues.
While the Devils like Mercer and what he brings because he can play center and wing. He filled the center position neatly when Jack Hughes dropped out due to an injury. At some point the Devils will have to pull the trigger.
Even Fitzgerald stated that when he met with the media a few weeks ago, he wanted to add it in advance, and if that meant moving a future piece to do so, he would be willing to do so.
“Depending on the deal, I just want to get better, and if that means moving future pieces to improve this team, I’m willing to do that,” Fitzgerald told local media.
Considering Mercer’s name has become known in recent years, now is the time to make a decision on the player as he will be eligible for a contract extension on July 1. But is this the kind of action that really shakes up a team? And again, there were opportunities to make hockey trades involving Mercer earlier in recent seasons, but the Devils declined.
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Dougie Hamilton is also a player to watch coming out of the break. Hamilton has played better since his scratch against the Winnipeg Jets, increasing his trade value. The problem is that the Devils couldn’t move because of Luke Hughes’ injury. Will those conversations be restarted with teams across the league? He has a 10-team trade list, so it will be difficult to make that move now.
And another one on the defensive side of the puck, who’s going on that side of the puck too? Could there be a Jonas Siegenthaler in play? What about Simon Nemec, who is a restricted free agent this summer? So many questions and not enough answers considering how tight the situation is Devils from New Jersey are against the salary cap.
Could the New Jersey Devils make a hockey trade? Sure, but if it’s just guys like Nemec and Mercer, who have been available in the past, then Fitzgerald is just moving guys he could have traded in the past. If it’s someone else, there will be a bigger shock in the room than just those players.
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