Welcome to Deadline Day, everyone.
The writers here at All About the Jersey have been writing about trades, roster construction, the big picture and whether Tom Fitzgerald should even still be around to make these kinds of decisions in the lead-up to the trade deadline. Please see the links below for the last several articles.
- February 25, by Jared: Jack Hughes Showed, Once Again, He’s the Right Player to Build This Devils Team Around
- February 26, by Gerard: It’s Looking More and More Like a Coaching/Management Issue with the New Jersey Devils
- February 27, by Jackson: The Next General Manager Must Right the Quinn Hughes Wrong
- March 1: In Need of a Retool: Who Should the Devils Target in Trades?
- March 2, by Jackson: If The New Jersey Devils Sell At The Trade Deadline, What Are Their Options?
- March 4, by Jared: What If the Devils Were Aggressive Sellers at the Trade Deadline?
- March 5, by Gerard: I Don’t Trust Tom Fitzgerald to Not Screw Up this Trade Deadline for the New Jersey Devils
Given all of the topics at hand in these articles, I think Gerard’s last article before the trade deadline really captures the sentiment among the New Jersey Devils fanbase right
now. He hit on the Simon Nemec issue in that article, but it has even seemed like there’s something smoldering there given the news earlier in the evening that Nemec has fired his agent, J.P. Barry, per Elliotte Friedman, who also said that Paul Cotter’s name has come up in trade discussions. Of course, Barry represented only two Devils prior to Nemec going for a new agent: Nemec and Dougie Hamilton. Barry seems to have come at odds with Tom Fitzgerald over the last couple seasons between last year’s handling of Nemec and the business of Dougie Hamilton earlier this year, so I am not sure how much should be read into the change. If he wanted someone to play hardball with Fitzgerald, I am not sure he could get someone more willing to do so than Barry.
But in the above articles, you see some arguments for an aggressive approach, such as the one from Jared. Gerard, understandably, is not comfortable with Fitzgerald making big moves for the team at this point. I suggested a range of moves, from small-scale and low-risk options to big overhaul ideas in my trade targets article. Meanwhile, I think Jackson did a really good job of going through the value of the players on the Devils in his article on March 2. Give those articles a look and feel free to quote and discuss them in the comments here while we wait for actual trade action.
News-wise, the Devils have already made some moves. They have waived Luke Glendening, Evgenii Dadonov, and Maxim Tsyplakov. They will be around $7 million in cap space if those players are unclaimed but reassigned to Utica, though they can save even more if Tsyplakov is claimed or traded after clearing. I do not see the former two as parts of the Devils’ end of the season, let alone the future, though, so this is probably best for everyone. Glendening could still take some fourth-line faceoffs for a playoff hopeful in a pinch, while Dadonov might be able to latch on somewhere and get his game straight before the season ends. We will see what happens with these three.
If you are following the deadline on Twitter, I implore you to stay glued to Elliotte Friedman’s feed. Some insiders will have reported deals fall through, but it seems a genuine rarity for Friedman. Otherwise, Pierre LeBrun seems to get the scoops directly from Tom Fitzgerald in case there is some Devils action brewing (or not brewing and Fitzgerald wants to get his explanations out there). Bob McKenzie, now retired, will not be on TSN Trade Centre, but he has said he will make a short appearance in the early morning, for those who can watch. Hopefully, TSN’s coverage remains solid without him.
For those of you who do not know, the official trade deadline is at 3:00 PM Eastern Time. Trades must be submitted to the league office by that time. We may still hear of trades some time afterwards, but the action should be done by the early evening.
