The highly anticipated trade deadline day for Devils fans did not go as well as they hoped.
The Devils were not able to acquire a top-six forward. Instead, they ended the day with third and fourth liners, a bottom-pair defenseman, and some AHL trades. They also re-signed defender Johnathan Kovacevic to a five-year extension. Let’s take a quick look at a recap of the day.
- Acquired forward Daniel Sprong
- Acquired defenseman Dennis Cholowski
- Acquired defenseman Brian Dumoulin
- Acquired forward Cody Glass
- Acquired forward Marc McLaughlin
- Acquired forward Shane LaChance
- Re-signed defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic
For all these moves, the Devils lost some prospects, such as Chase Stillman and unsigned draft picks Max Graham, Adam Beckman, and Herman Traff.
With Dougie Hamilton out for an extended amount of time and Jonas Seigenthaler out the rest of the season, possibly for the playoffs, Dumoulin and Cholowski will help the Devils on defense. Young players like Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey, who are still adjusting to the NHL, will not help the Devils during a playoff push. Acquiring these two new blueliners gives Nemec and Casey time to develop more in the AHL.
Sprong and Glass will help the Devils’ bottom six and hopefully get some offensive production out of a very lackadaisical group of forwards. With Jack Hughes out for the season, Glass will help the Devils out down the center of the ice. Sprong has not played in an NHL game since December. He will draw into the lineup playing on Glass’ wing.
Despite making multiple additions to the lineup, Devils fans’ expectations were certainly not met. With Hughes out on LTIR, the Devils had a lot of money to spend to get them to a more threatening lineup. The additions that were made are not going to put the Devils back on top of the hockey world.
Devils fans hoped to end the trade deadline with a top-six winger and a top-six center. With the Devils’ main concern currently being their lack of offensive production, New Jersey needed someone who could put the puck in the back of the net or help struggling winger Timo Meier. Ultimately, Devils management did not get what Devils fans hoped for.
While it was not a terrible trade deadline day for the Devils, it certainly could have been better. Time will only tell what the newest Devils additions bring to the lineup. With these players, it could be a hit or miss.
With only 18 games left in the season for the Devils, the playoff race is on. Their divisional rivals are catching up and need as many points as possible.
Will these new additions to the lineup push the Devils to the playoffs?
