The New Jersey Devils season has not gone according to plan. They’re unlikely to make the playoffs when they return from the Olympic break. And because this is supposedly a “win now” team, missing the playoffs entirely is an unacceptable result. People are looking for someone to point the finger at and blame for the shortcomings of the team.
We can all agree that there are issues with this team. Where we don’t necessarily agree is where the biggest issues lie and the way to go about fixing it. I think I’ve made my viewpoint perfectly clear where I blame Tom Fitzgerald more than anyone, and I don’t think any of this changes until the Devils clean house with their front office and scouting departments. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t think Sheldon Keefe is a big part of the problem (he is) or that the players are blameless (they’re not), but much like when weeds pop up in your front lawn, you’re not going to get rid of them until you literally get to the root of the issue. To me, that’s Fitzgerald.
Where I struggle to get on the same page as some of my Devils fan brethren is when it comes to blaming the players. I would agree that there are very few players, if any, on the Devils that have had a good year. My list would probably be Cody Glass and maybe Arseny Gritsyuk and that’s about it. I would also agree that when it comes to the “core players”, they haven’t been anywhere near good enough this season. And with all due respect to the supporting cast, its the Devils “core players” that would significantly move the needle one way or the other in regards to how good this team actually is. It’s not surprising with them all having bad years that the team is bad.
Where I disagree is wanting to cut bait with said players.
For reasons that I don’t quite understand, there are Devils fans who don’t like Jack and Luke Hughes. There are Devils fans who suggest that Nico Hischier is a “bad captain”, whatever that means. Depending upon how wide-ranging you want your “core” to be, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, and others have had their flaws as hockey players picked apart as much as anybody else on the roster, because that’s what we do as fans when the team underperforms. It has to be someone’s fault, after all. And with the core of this team being together for several seasons now and only have one (1) second round appearance to show for it, fans get restless, throw their arms up in disgust, declare that you can’t win with these guys, and it’s time to trade them.
Never mind the fact that if the player(s) is as bad as you’re telling me he is, why would any other team want them?
Never mind the fact that you’re telling me that the player(s) is bad and needs to be traded while also simultaneously trying to tell me this other team will definitely give up their superstar player in exchange for him.
I’m not saying that the Devils should continue what they’re doing indefinitely when it hasn’t worked. But it also doesn’t take a genius to suggest that trading away good players isn’t the answer either. So this week, I’m going to take a brief historical look at trades where a team gave away a star player for one reason or another, why it hasn’t worked out for them, and why it also won’t work out for the Devils if they were foolish enough to go down that road.
For purposes of this exercise, I’m only going to include deals in the salary cap era. I’m not really all that interested in going back to when the Oilers traded away Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier, but spoiler alert, the Oilers didn’t win those deals when they got rid of future first-ballot Hall of Famers. Shocking, I know.
Maple Leafs Trade Mitch Marner to the Golden Knights for Nic Roy
This one feels a little bit like cheating since Marner was technically a free agent who was clearly leaving, but the circumstances leading up to it actually share a lot of parallels to what the Devils are currently going through.
The Maple Leafs went through season after season of being unable to to reach a Conference Final, let alone a Stanley Cup Final. They changed the coach several times. They changed the GM. They changed the supporting cast on the roster time and time again. But the core was essentially the same throughout with Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Reilly as the constants for the Leafs from the late 2010s up until last season.
The Leafs had yet another season where they came up short and “something simply had to change because you can’t keep running it back” in regards to the core. After all, they’ve already changed the GM, the coach, and the supporting cast several times over. Matthews is the new captain and he recently re-signed so he’s not going anywhere. Nylander is signed long-term so neither was he. Same goes for Reilly. So the only pieces that could theoretically change were pending UFAs Tavares (who took a discount to stay) and Marner. Marner was deemed the whipping boy or scapegoat or however you want to phrase it, and he was as ready to move on from the Leafs as the Leafs were ready to move on from him.
How’s that working out for Toronto this season? Not great.
There are other reasons why Toronto will likely miss the playoffs this season….Anthony Stolarz has been injured and hasn’t been very good when he has played, and the Leafs supporting cast is still average. But perhaps no reason is bigger than Toronto essentially letting a player who was a consistent 25-30 goal scorer and chipped in 60+ assists leave for essentially nothing but a bottom six center.
I like Nic Roy. He’s a solid option to have further down in your lineup. But he’s no Mitch Marner, who is having a typical Mitch Marner season in Vegas for a team that is likely playoff-bound. And while it remains to be seen what Marner and the Knights do once they get there, I doubt he’s all that upset about getting out of the Toronto pressure cooker. Especially given where he wound up.
Toronto failed to replace the production that a departing Marner provided, and it’s a big part of the reason why they’re going to miss the playoffs. That’s not to say that they still can’t eventually replace Marner’s production going forward, but as we already know, there’s no player with Marner’s level of production that is hitting the UFA or trade market this summer, and even if there were, there’s no guarantee Toronto gets them.
Maple Leafs Trade Phil Kessel (And Stuff) to the Penguins for Mostly Spare Parts
Long before Marner was the scapegoat for Toronto’s failures, there was Phil Kessel.
Toronto missed the playoffs during Kessel’s last few years there. “It was time to move on” from a player like Kessel, who has a mercurial personality to begin with. Add in the fact that the Toronto media did everything they could to run Kessel out of town and Leafs management finally obliged with this doozy of a trade.
Toronto sent Kessel, Tyler Biggs, Tim Erixon, and a conditional 2nd round pick to the Penguins for Kasperi Kapanen, one-time almost a Devil Scott Harrington (who was later in the Timo Meier trade), Nick Spaling, a conditional first round pick (later flipped for Frederik Andersen), and a third round pick (James Greenway).
Kapanen was the most notable piece that the Leafs got back, and he was ok with 90 points over 202 games for Toronto before being later dealt back to Pittsburgh. Harrington was later dealt to Columbus and was a journeyman defenseman. Spaling was a checking line forward who was flipped at the deadline later that year. Greenway never played in the NHL, and the first round pick was flipped for Frederik Andersen who was mostly good for Toronto before he too was eventually run out of town for Toronto’s failures as a team. Toronto hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since making this trade, and actually tanked for a couple seasons in the immediate aftermath of said deal, which did land them Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Is a handful of good seasons by the goaltender and a handful of ok seasons by Kapanen enough of a return for a top line scoring winger in his prime who fit the Penguins like a glove and was a key part of two Stanley Cup winning teams there (and three if we count his final season in Vegas?). Especially when the Leafs wound up accomplishing nothing of significance for the period that Andersen and Kapanen were there before they were eventually moved? Who’s to say?
Sabres Trade Jack Eichel to Golden Knights for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, and Picks
The backstory with Eichel’s falling out with the Sabres is well documented. The Sabres were a perennial loser with him. Eichel got injured and needed neck surgery. Both sides disagreed on how to proceed with the specific neck surgery that Eichel would get. Eichel, who was already annoyed with the organization given the state of the team throughout his tenure there, got fed up and requested a trade. The Sabres eventually obliged once the situation became untenable, sending him (along with a 3rd rd pick) to Vegas for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a first round pick (eventually used on Noah Ostlund) and a second round pick (later flipped to Minnesota for Jordan Greenway).
Eichel eventually got the surgery he wanted, returned to the lineup for the Golden Knights, and has been been better than a PPG #1 center for the Golden Knights since. Eichel was a key member of their championship team in 2022-23 and had a legitimate case for the Conn Smythe award that eventually went to Jonathan Marchessault.
Buffalo got an excellent player on a good contract in Tuch, although he is a pending UFA so it remains to be seen where his future lies. But Krebs hasn’t really developed into anything more than a fourth line center. Ostlund has been ok in his first full NHL season and Greenway has been an average at best bottom six winger. That’s not exactly the type of return you’re looking for when you’re trading away a borderline Top 5 center in the entire league.
Needless to say, Buffalo has mostly struggled since trading Eichel. Their playoff drought will probably come to an end this season, as they’ve been white hot since firing the GM who made that trade. Which is weird, because I’ve been told time and time again that you can’t possibly expect the team to play better after making a change like that.
Generally speaking though, I would disagree with anyone who suggests that Buffalo has been better off without Eichel. They’ll probably make the playoffs this year, but the Eichel trade isn’t the reason why. That’s not to say that Tuch hasn’t been good, because he certainly has been. But Vegas winning a Cup almost immediately with Eichel and Eichel remaining an elite level center for them for the remainder of his prime trumps anything Buffalo has accomplished post-trade.
Bruins Trade Joe Thornton to the Sharks for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and Brad Stuart
People in Boston might retroactively try to claim that trading away Joe Thornton was the catalyst for the Stanley Cup championship team they would eventually build that won in 2011.
They’re entitled to their opinion, but that would be revisionist history.
Thornton, who was Boston’s captain when traded and had just signed a 3-year deal the previous offseason, became a punching bag in Boston due to his leadership style and Boston’s failures in the playoffs. The two sides had a contentious contract negotiation the previous summer with each side unhappy with the other, but Thornton eventually put pen to paper on a new three year deal.
With the Bruins struggling in the first season post-lockout, they traded Thornton to the Sharks for three players and no draft picks. Sturm was ok as a Bruin, with 193 points in 302 games over parts of five seasons. But Primeau and Stuart were depth pieces who ultimately left Boston as free agents.
Meanwhile, Thornton immediately turned the Sharks season around with a Hart Trophy season and a playoff appearance. Including the split season between Boston and San Jose, Thornton totaled 970 points over his next 937 games, which is a Hall of Fame-caliber career in and of itself. The Sharks never won a Stanley Cup while Thornton was there….call it a byproduct of playing in the same era as Chicago and Los Angeles when they were winning championships if you want….but the Sharks were a consistent playoff team throughout his 15 years in Northern California. Meanwhile, Boston got nothing of note in return for a future first ballot Hall of Famer in his prime.
None of us have a crystal ball to tell us whether or not Boston eventually wins a Cup had they kept Thornton. We know they won one in 2011 without him, but that team was also significantly better than the ones Thornton was on. Tim Thomas won a Vezina that year. They had Hall of Famers up and down their lineup with a young Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand playing alongside Zdeno Chara and Mark Recchi. Guys like Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Nathan Horton were young and in their primes. Blake Wheeler and Tyler Seguin would go on to become stars in the league themselves. That Boston team was loaded.
If the argument is that trading Thornton allowed Boston to sink to the bottom of the standings and allocate resources elsewhere, I would disagree with that. Boston was really only bad for a two year stretch in the mid 00s. Bergeron and Thomas were already on the roster when Thornton was dealt. Marchand was drafted in the third round the following season. They did wind up signing Chara that following offseason. While it would be foolish to suggest Chara wasn’t a big part of why the Bruins turned things around, who Boston later acquired after the fact doesn’t exactly make up for what has been universally accepted as one of the worst trades in modern NHL history.
Flames Trade Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 first round pick (Cullen Potter)
Of course, I fully expect the one trade everyone in the comments section who wants to trade Jack and Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt to point to would be this one.
Context matters however.
The Flames didn’t necessarily want to trade Matthew Tkachuk. They knew how good he is. But the Flames found themselves in that position where they didn’t have much of a choice after Johnny Gaudreau left in free agency and Tkachuk made it clear that he wasn’t going to re-sign in Calgary when his contract was up in a year. Tkachuk had a fairly limited list of teams he was willing to sign a contract extension with (side note, New Jersey wasn’t one of those teams on his list even though his cousin is Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald). And even with that, Calgary probably did better than most of the other teams on this list in terms of getting quality NHL players in return.
That’s not to necessarily say they did great though. Huberdeau has been unable to replicate the 115 point season he had in his final season in South Florida and is in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him which pays him $10.5M AAV. Weegar has been a top pairing defenseman for the Flames but has struggled this year and is also in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him. Schwindt hasn’t really taken off as an NHL player and is now back with Florida while the jury is out on what Potter will be. But in the bigger picture, Calgary has been doing their own retool or rebuild or whatever one wants to call it since Tkachuk and Gaudreau left. They haven’t made the playoffs since this trade, and probably aren’t heading there anytime soon as they continue to shop veteran players like Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman, among others.
Of course, all of that pales in comparison to Tkachuk, who was a key member of a Florida Panthers team that reached the Stanley Cup Final in three consecutive seasons since he arrived and won twice.
I don’t know if in an alternate universe if Bill Zito and the Panthers wind up winning a Stanley Cup had Tkachuk gone to St. Louis or Vegas or Tampa Bay instead. Saying they might have won anyways diminishes Tkachuk’s contributions when he was a key piece of that team. But it’s not like Florida didn’t have a good team prior to that trade. A lot of key players like Sasha Barkov, Sam Bennett, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad, Gus Forsling, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, and Carter Verhaeghe were already there. Huberdeau and Weegar were the odd men out, but it’s also in a trade to get Matthew Tkachuk.
Zito had an opportunity to make a franchise-defining trade and certainly has no regrets after the fact. Nor should he. But this is also a particularly perfect set of circumstances that played out in his favor and Calgary still wound up doing better than most teams in terms of getting an actual return for trading away a star player. I don’t think this is one that is easily duplicated, in part because most teams aren’t looking to trade away a “Tkachuk-type” if they have one. And even if a team is trading that type away, its usually because they know they’re going to lose the player if they don’t trade him, and the list of destinations is fairly limited.
How Does This Pertain To the Devils?
I could keep going on bad trades that sent a star player out of town, such as the deal that sent Jeff Carter to Los Angeles (helping spur two championship runs for the Kings) or the Roberto Luongo trade that sent him from Florida to Vancouver (where he was runner up for the Hart and Vezina in his first year and helped lead Vancouver to a Cup Final appearance), but I think you get the point.
The purpose of this article isn’t to say the Devils should definitely not trade (insert player name here). When you’ve been as mediocre as the Devils have been for the last several years, I do think you should approach this situation with an open mind.
That said, there’s quite a few things that need to be said.
It’s hard to get talented players in this league. The Devils have never historically been a premiere free agent destination, and as we’re seeing with the Devils the last few years, building a team through free agency is tough to do. You’re paying market rate for said players who are more of the supporting cast types than franchise players, you’re in a position where you probably have to get a little uncomfortable by giving them an extra year and/or no-trade protection, and we’re dealing with players in their 30s when their best years might already be behind them. The superstar players that actually move the needle rarely make it to free agency in their prime, and in the rare cases they do, they’re not picking New Jersey. That includes Dougie Hamilton, who is closer to being a really good supporting cast member than a true #1 defenseman.
Teams that have star players aren’t going to easily give them up. There’s usually extenuating circumstances that lead to the “why” the trade is happening. The team wants to cut costs, or they know the player is going to be a free agent and they’re unlikely to keep them. Maybe there’s bad blood between management and the player for whatever reason, such as the one I pointed out with Eichel. Maybe its a situation where in a hockey-crazy market, the team listens to their fanbase in regards to who not to bring back because its easier to run a smear campaign after the player left town than it is to build a winner around said player. Giving up on talent should be viewed as a last resort, and should only be considered once other options have been exhausted.
And even when you do decide to give up on said player? You’re probably not going to come close to winning said trade. You’re probably going to get a late first round pick back. Maybe two if you’re lucky because one of the picks may have a “if the team wins the Stanley Cup, you get a first round pick” condition attached to it. You’ll likely get a prospect back, but it probably won’t be THE prospect you want from said team because that player has been deemed untouchable by his current team. And you might get a young player back, but that player won’t be nearly as good as the one you’re trading away.
While all this is going on, you’ll continue to lose hockey games because it turns out said player you’re giving up on wasn’t actually part of the problem in the first place. To make matters worse, you’ll probably see said player celebrate newfound success with their new team because their management team and/or coaching staff actually knows what they’re doing and knows how to put players like that in a position to succeed. Tom Fitzgerald has made plenty of mistakes in his time as Devils general manager, but how much worse would things be if he had given up on difference makers like, say, Sam Bennett or Carter Verhaeghe too early instead of Jesper Boqvist and Vitek Vanecek. But hey, maybe those prospects and magic beans you’re getting back will pan out someday.
Nobody is saying that Jack or Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, or whoever else you want to consider to be a “core” piece of the Devils moving forward is as good as the players listed in the historical examples above. But when you start giving up on players, you better be right about that because the consequences if you are wrong are more significant than giving up on a coach, or a GM, or changing around the supporting cast. Especially when there’s been zero inclination of said players actually wanting out of this situation. The Devils shouldn’t be looking to push their so-called core pieces out the door. Those are the types of unforced errors that can set the franchise back half a decade or longer.
This isn’t the NHL video game where you can propose trading the Hughes brothers to Minnesota to complete the Hughes triforce there, or try pawning off Jesper Bratt on Ottawa for Brady Tkachuk because “we need a Tkachuk-type”. Star player for star player trades aren’t commonplace for a reason. And no, I’m not interested in trading Jack Hughes for some draft picks and a B-level prospect because “you gotta shake up the core” or because he’s “always hurt” or you don’t like the answers he gives to the media. I’d rather have Jack Hughes, who we all know can be a game-breaking talent, flaws and all. If Luke Hughes is as bad as everyone has told me he was this year (and he’s not nearly that bad, to be clear), who is giving you anything worthwhile that’s worth accepting when he’s making $9M AAV for six more years? I’d rather bet on the player and that he’ll ultimately be the player the Devils projected him to be when they drafted him than sell on the player for 30 cents on the dollar.
Nico Hischier might be different in that he’ll be entering his contract year next year. I would expect that he ultimately signs a contract extension, but its not a lock that he does. If, and only if, he decides not to sign would I even entertain a trade pertaining to the Devils captain. But what I’m not doing is trading a guy that people tell me is a bad captain when those people have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to dynamics in the room when they’re not actually in said room.
I’m not drawing a definitive line in the sand when it comes to everybody else in the Devils roster because I do think there’s something to the idea that the mix itself isn’t working and hasn’t worked. But I also believe the Devils have good players on this roster who are having bad years. I don’t know what the reason for that necessarily is, whether its injury-related, a coaching structure that is way too conservative, bad luck, or some combination of the above. But we’ve seen enough good hockey from Jesper Bratt, for example, over the years to where I don’t think he just forgot how to play hockey in his age-27 season.
I’m not saying the Devils shouldn’t consider trading Bratt, or Hamilton, or Meier, or Dawson Mercer, or Simon Nemec, or whoever. I’m not even saying any or all of them are “core players”. I’m saying that it’s easier to change everything else around the players. It’s easier to find a new GM who actually does think skill is important and isn’t just loading up on grinders who play “playoff style hockey”. It’s easier to find a coach who strikes the right balance where maybe you’re not always selling out for offense like they did under Lindy Ruff, but you’re also not suppressing offense for the sake of defense either like they are under Sheldon Keefe. It’s easier to swap out your supporting cast until you find a better mix of players to compliment the skill players you do have.
At the end of the day, you need talented players in order to win in this league. You’re not winning without good players. One shouldn’t be so quick to discard said players because you don’t think they don’t fit the mold of what you think a winning hockey player looks like.
But with that said, if you want to go ahead and trust the regime that whiffed on the Alex Holtz and Chase Stillman picks with more draft capital that they’ll get it right this time, by all means. If you want to trust the regime that can’t figure out how to build a winning team at the AHL level or develop that favorite prospect of yours that definitely would’ve made it if he only got a chance, go for it.
I’d rather keep the bird in the hand than take my chances with the two in the bush.
Final Thoughts
It’s true that the Devils best players need to be better than what we’ve seen this year. You’re only going to go as far as your best players take you. But the reality of the situation is that almost across the board, the majority of the team is having a bad year. Nobody has been good enough.
It’s also true that the Devils need to do a better job of building a team around the handful of good players they do have instead of kicking those players to the curb because you’re sick of them like a petulant child would be with a toy he got on Christmas that he didn’t like. If it means a GM change and bringing in somebody who has a better vision of what a winning team looks like than the crew currently in charge, so be it. If it means bringing in a coach who knows how to allow the team’s best players to be their best players, so be it.
Maybe the Devils ultimately don’t wind up winning anything with this particular “core”, regardless of who is in it, when its all said and done years from now. But they haven’t exhausted all of their options yet trying to build around said core either. Selling low on good players who are all having a bad year isn’t the answer. The Devils shouldn’t consider trading any core player until it’s absolutely necessary.
As bad as things are, we’re not even close to that point yet.