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New Jersey Devils Q&A: On Zacha, The Draft, Potential Trade Targets & More

May 8, 2016, 1:39 PM ET [18 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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Things have been awfully quiet for the New Jersey Devils since their season concluded a month ago.

Given not much is going on I decided to take questions on what we could see when things finally pick up in the coming months.

Let's get right to it.




Should Pavel Zacha make the Devils, which is a very realistic possibility, I expect he'll be able to contribute.

I think he's capable of chipping in here and there at even-strength while playing in the middle-6 and inflating his totals a bit on the power play.

A realistic expectation, I think, would be 15 goals and 30-35 points.




Personally I would be open to trading Mike Cammalleri, however, I don't see him being dealt.

He has proven to be one of the few Devils capable of producing at full-strength and is arguably the best goal scorer on the team. As such I think he has more value to the Devils than what they'd be able to fetch for him in the trade.

If someone came with a good offer I'd definitely consider moving Cammalleri but, again, because of his age, injury history and cap hit I doubt there will be teams lining up for his services.

I expect he'll remain a Devil and I think he'll have a productive season in 2016-17.




John Quenneville is coming along nicely but I don't think he is NHL ready quite yet.

Barring a fantastic preseason I think the Devils would be smart to send him to Albany for some polishing. Should Quenneville produce in the AHL, and force the Devils' hand, they can bring him up a couple months into the season a la Joseph Blandisi.

There's no shame in needing some time to develop in the AHL, either. Adam Henrique spent some time in the minors before he was given his chance and he turned out just fine.




Anything is possible but I think the Devils will stand pat and use the 11th overall pick.

The cost to move up in the draft, especially near the top, is always high and I think the Devils would be better off staying where they are as opposed to packing a bunch of picks to move up a few spots and get a similar caliber player to the one they'd get at 11.

Trading a few assets to move up to, say, 6th overall and drafting Alex Nylander rather than getting a guy like Clayton Keller at 11 seems like bad business; and I really like Nylander.




I've touched on this a bit already but the one guy I've really set my sights on is Clayton Keller.

He can play center or the wing and has piled up points at a ridiculous rate wherever he has played; whether it be at the USNTDP, the under-18s or anywhere else.

The Devils desperately need some high-end talent up front and Keller would provide them that.




In a perfect world the Devils could get their hands on a guy like Mike Hoffman, who for some reason seems to have fallen out of favor in Ottawa. He can score goals like nobody's business and would add a lot of speed to the team as well.

A couple other pending restricted free agents that could potentially be on the move, and would really help the Devils, are Marcus Johansson and Valeri Nichushkin.

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