Devils Hold At Deadline | FEATURE

The NHL’s annual trade deadline came and past on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. And overall, the moment came with more of a whisper than a bang.

There was little activity throughout the League and none of the big splash trades that fans have come to expect from years past as the clock struck zero.

In fact, many teams made zero trades at all.

The New Jersey Devils were one of those teams. That doesn’t mean they weren’t working the phones, but like many teams in the League, the Devils like their current group and were looking to add to it instead of subtract.

“My focus was purely on the future of this organization moving forward and trying to add to the current a group, a player or two that could grow with this group,” Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. “That was my focus, but nothing materialized.”

The Devils are in a unique position. It’s unlikely the team will qualify for the playoffs this Spring, but the roster still has tons of talent and potential. Without a playoff guarantee, giving up assets for short-term help didn’t make sense. But the team is close enough on paper that trading off current players for future assets also didn’t make sense.

The Devils weren’t buyers and they weren’t sellers. Instead, they were looking for a “hockey trade,” meaning a swap of talent of equal value or benefit. However, no such trade came to fruition.

“But it wasn’t without effort of trying to see if there was some sort of hockey trade we could make to help our team, more importantly for next year moving forward,” Fitzgerald said. “Going back two weeks ago, my recommendation to ownership was to not go out and spend futures on rentals. Could there be hockey trades to be made? We have good assets. You poke around with teams. You know what’s out there. Everybody is transparent with one another. Who’s available and who’s not.”

The Devils have zeroed in on an area of need and an area of strength. The team wants to add a top-6 forward. And the biggest avenue to acquire one will likely come from its blue line.

“We have seven NHL everyday players on our back end. Trying to shake one of those loose in the offseason will be my goal,” Fitzgerald said. “Maybe to give us some help up front, maybe a top-6 winger or something.

“It’s my job to find some new juice and help the group get a spark. Better our forward group. If I can do that with some of the defense on the back end, then that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

Fitzgerald once again expressed his belief in the team’s core – which is considered to be forwards Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier and defenseman Luke Hughes. Ideally, the team would like to keep that core intact and make moves around the edges. But that doesn’t mean Fitzgerald wouldn’t move one of those pieces if he got proper value in return to help reinvigorate the squad.

“I do believe in this core. I believe in the four or five players that make up that core,” he said. “We need something new, new juice here to help us moving forward. That was something I tried to focus in on today and try to add to the group without deleting. But if I had to delete something, it would be for the betterment of this group moving forward and the future of this organization.”

In the end, it was all quiet on the Jersey Front. As it was in many parts of the NHL.

“There were a lot of teams not willing to move pieces because they’re in a playoff sport or because they’re out of a playoff spot but still believe in their players and want to give it another go,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s how I read the whole situation.”

Fitzgerald anticipated that heading into the 3 o’clock hour, however, he was hopeful something could still get done.

“I thought it was going to be very quiet from the get-go,” he said. “When you talk about trying to make hockey trades, swapping out young players for more established players or similar ilk, I really thought there’d be some traction with teams. I guess there was a sense of, a lot of tire kicking with people. (Did I) expect this? Kind of.”

While there were lots of talks and conversations around the League, nothing for the Devils ever gained any momentum or legs.

“I was open to anything,” Fitzgerald said. “Even young players for young players. Nothing really materialized that made sense for us. I got calls on a lot of guys but never got any offers on them to think about.”

Odds and Ends

• Fitzgerald on Dougie Hamilton trade rumors: “I did not have Dougie Hamilton’s name out there. Did I get calls from a couple teams assuming that I had Dougie’s name out there? Yeah. Dougie’s played extremely well for us. He’s a really good player. When we’re playing well, he’s usually playing well. That’s what we expect from him. There was no shopping or putting him out on the market to see what I could get. I didn’t do that. There was more noise out there than there actually was.”
• Fitzgerald on re-signing defenseman Simon Nemec: “We’ll definitely get a deal done with Simon. … He did change agencies. He went through what he means to us. He’s a good, young defenseman. He’s part of our organization until he’s not.”
• Fitzgerald on re-signing forward Arseny Gritsyuk: “We’ve talked to his agent. He loves New Jersey. We own his rights. He’s been a joy to watch and he adds so much to our team. I’m looking forward to his development and growth as he gets more comfortable with this league. Absolutely we see him long term.”
• The Devils waived Luke Glendening (claimed by Philadelphia) and Evgenii Dadonov to give them a chance to play more with another team. They waived Maxim Tsyplakov to give themselves cap flexibility to make a trade today. Dadonov and Tsyplakov are available to rejoin the team.