New Jersey Devils swap Ty Smith for John Marino

Marino will improve the team's defense in the short and long-term.

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The New Jersey Devils pulled off a sizeable trade on Saturday, shipping defenseman Ty Smith – and a 3rd round draft pick – to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for John Marino.

Smith, 22, is a once highly touted prospect whose NHL play has left a lot to be desired through two seasons.

While Smith garnered a lot of hype his rookie year – understandable on the surface; even I was encouraged by Smith’s production rates – his overall impact wasn’t anywhere close to as good as it was perceived.

This isn’t hindsight; our own C.J. Turtoro poured cold water on Smith’s rookie campaign shortly after it ended.

His even-strength offense was solid when playing alongside Jack Hughes. That wasn’t the case without Hughes and Smith’s defense, of course, left a lot to be desired.

Evolving-Hockey had Smith worth +0.8 Goals Above Replacement as a rookie; putting him in closest contact with *checks notes* Patrik Nemeth, Zach Bogosian, Dmitry Kulikov, Brett Kulak, Henri Jokiharju, and Jamie Oleksiak.

Simply put, his debut season wasn’t all that good; and he was a disaster from start to finish as a sophomore.