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Friday night Ray Shero pulled the trigger on his first trade of the off-season.

The New Jersey Devils sent AHL forwards Graham Black and Paul Thompson to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Marc Savard and Florida's 2nd round pick in 2018.

A few notes:

1) Savard, much like Ryane Clowe, will never play again. He is simply a cap dump for the Panthers. Savard will only make $575,000 next season but his cap hit is a little over $4 million. The Devils have a lot of cap space and more or less used some of it to buy a draft pick.

2) Savard's contract expires following the 2016-17 season. The Devils aren't going to compete for the Stanley Cup next season so investing $4 million of their cap space for one year in exchange for an asset that could help in the future is smart business.

3) The Devils don't need to protect Savard in an expansion draft as a) his no-trade clause expired following the 2013-14 season and; b) he's a free agent next summer. This is just a one year commitment.

4) Graham Black is 23 years old and has registered just 23 points in 98 AHL regular season games. Paul Thompson is 27 and coming off a 35 point campaign with the A-Devils. It's very doubtful either player will ever be an NHL regular so the only asset the Devils parted with is cap space for a single season.

5) An underrated part of this trade is the Devils also cleared a contract slot. That gives them the flexibility to take on an extra body in a trade, give an ELC to an undrafted prospect, etc.

6) The Devils have nine draft picks in 2016, eight draft picks in 2017, and nine draft picks in 2018. Ray Shero is doing a real nice job of stockpiling picks and ensuring a bright future for the organization.

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