Ondrej Palat, Dawson Mercer featured on Sportsnet's trade board

Nick Kypreos released his first board of the off-season and a couple of New Jersey Devils forwards were featured.

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The Stanley Cup Final has yet to begin but with the draft just over three weeks away, trade talk is starting to pick up league-wide.

This has led to several of the NHL’s most prominent insiders releasing trade boards based on names they’ve heard tossed around in discussions.

Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos was the latest to join the fun, publishing his first trade board of the off-season Monday.

A couple of New Jersey Devils players were listed, neither of whom featured on the boards put out by Chris Johnston (TheAthletic) or Frank Seravalli (DailyFaceoff).

Those players were wingers Ondrej Palat and Dawson Mercer.

We’ll start with the former.

Excerpt via Sportsnet: At his year-end press conference, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald said his team had to find more offence and that some players needed to “pick up the pace a bit.” He also said he wouldn’t return the same group in 2025-26 because this season’s result was simply not good enough. And so we look around the roster at the players who underperformed.

Ondrej Palat might qualify, the 34-year-old finishing up with a 28-point season. In three years now with New Jersey, he’s reached 30 points once (31 in 2023-24) and without much to speak of in terms of special teams responsibility, $6 million is an awful lot for the Devils to commit to Palat. He has two years left on a deal that also comes with trade protection, so Fitzgerald may have to get creative to move Palat off the roster.

Everyone in the organization likes Palat: the players, the coaching staff, and the front office.

Unfortunately, the NHL is a business and paying $6 million per season for someone who struggles to eclipse 30 points each year is bad business, no matter the value provided away from the puck or in the locker room.

If Palat made, say, $2 million per season, I think the Devils would be thrilled to have him back. That’s not the world we live in, though.

Given there are two years left on his deal, finding a suitor willing to eat his full salary is unlikely. It’d be far too costly.

If the Devils can find a trade partner, I think they’d have to retain at least $2 million. The Ducks and Sharks stood out to me as possible landing spots, if either is not on his no-trade list. Buying him out could also be an option if all else fails.