After years of searching for a top-4 defenseman, the New Jersey Devils have finally acquired one in Sami Vatanen.
In exchange for his services, the Devils will send forwards Adam Henrique, Joseph Blandisi, and a conditional draft choice to Anaheim.
On the surface, I think this trade makes a ton of sense for both sides.
Henrique is a good player and has been a loyal soldier for many years but his role on the team appeared to be diminishing and that would continue as young players like Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and co. continue to develop and earn more minutes.
Henrique would also likely be looking for a decent raise after the 2018-19 season – it's his last chance for a big payday – and it wouldn't make sense for the Devils to give it to him considering he'd be 29 at the time and, again, his role would only get smaller with time.
Blandisi has been a productive player in Albany and probably deserves to be in the NHL but some players (like Jesper Bratt and Brian Gibbons) unexpectedly jumped him on the depth chart so it seemed like only a matter of time before they moved on and gave him a chance elsewhere.
With Anaheim's forward core decimated by injuries, Henrique should step in as a top line player while Blandisi could potentially see steady ice in the middle-6.
In Vatanen, the Devils get a solid puck-moving defenseman who brings a cannon of a shot and can quarterback a power play. He is signed through 2019-20, too, so that's a nice added bonus.
His underlying numbers have been bad this season but his Corsi For% jumps 11%(!!) when he's not paired with Kevin Bieksa. In other words, the latter was most certainly the problem.
Vatanen was averaging more than 21 minutes per night on an Anaheim team with a stacked blue line so it's fair to say he should have no problem stepping in and taking on a big role from the word go.
I like this trade.