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Trade deadline day is finally here.
With the New Jersey Devils sitting 28th in league standings, and 16 points back of a Wild Card spot, there's no doubt they'll be selling today.
They started the process when they shipped Brian Boyle to Nashville for a 2nd round pick. Ray Shero followed that up with another strong trade, sending Ben Lovejoy to Dallas for a 3rd round pick and Connor Carrick.
Now he's at it again, with pending UFA Keith Kinkaid heading to Columbus for a 5th round pick in 2022.
I speculated they could be a landing spot for him in early January, citing Sergei Bobrovsky's uncertain future and Joonas Korpisalo's struggles. Considering Kinkaid's performance over the last few months, getting anything is a positive.
With three rentals already shipped out, Shero's attention has no doubt turned to Marcus Johansson and, potentially, Drew Stafford. The former will almost certainly be dealt, and the latter could go to a contender for a similar price as Kinkaid.
Calgary, New York (Islanders), Washington and Boston are a few potential landing spots for Johansson, but I could see others (Winnipeg, Vegas, etc.) getting involved if they strike out on their top targets such as Mark Stone and Kevin Hayes. If the return is pick-based, I'd look to the Mats Zuccarello and Gustav Nyquist trades as comparables.
As far as adding players goes, I'm not sure I'd expect much today. Shero is likely to use some of his excess picks to snag a player or two from cap-strapped teams. A lot of them are playoff bound, which means they won't be dealing players for futures mid-season. Those are trades for the summer.
I've learned never to say never but I think today will just be about selling rentals.
Recent Posts
On the Ben Lovejoy trade
On the trading of Brian Boyle
Shero squashes rumors Hall could be dealt prior to the deadline
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Zacha's offensive play leaves little room for optimism
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