Setting the table for the New Jersey Devils at the trade deadline

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The 2022 NHL trade deadline is just over two weeks away and the New Jersey Devils figure to be active; as you’d expect of a team 22 points out of a playoff spot.

They would reportedly like to add some sort of goaltending help and they’re also open to moving players outside of the rental market.

Most notably, Pavel Zacha and Damon Severson have had their names thrown around; especially of late.

Severson was recently added to TSN’s 50 player trade bait list *and* DailyFaceoff’s ‘Trade Target’ list. And where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.

I wanted to share my thoughts on each of the tidbits and, with the Devils off again today, now seems like the perfect time to do it.

On the rumored goaltending search

This season is lost. The players know it, the coaches know it, and management knows it. So why invest literally anything into what might only be a short-term solution? There are a couple reasons the team could justify it:

1. To throw the players a bone. By and large, they’ve played well at 5v5 for quite some time. They’re finally getting healthy and on many nights the team looks objectively good. It has to be enormously frustrating to be the better team and still leave the ice with loss after loss. While they can’t make the playoffs, this team does want to finish strong and finally start heading on an upwards trajectory. They can’t do that when their goaltenders give up three or four goals on a good night.

2. Protecting the kids. Nico Daws is a good prospect. Akira Schmid is a good prospect. It’s possible one or both of them can be NHL caliber netminders in the future. I don’t think either is ready right now, though. Putting them in a position where they’re likely to fail – rather than letting them continue to develop on a fantastic AHL team – isn’t going to help anybody. It’s one thing to let a flawed player work through his struggles while playing 12 sheltered minutes per night. There’s no sheltering a goaltender.

Again, you could debate whether the Devils should expend any assets on a short-term fix. But if they’re moving a lottery ticket with, say, a 10% chance of even becoming an NHL player, getting decent goaltending for 30+ games (and who knows, maybe Goaltender X sticks around) might well be worth it.